10 must-see architecture and design events to check out this December

Though 2024 is coming to an end, there is no shortage of exciting architecture and design festivals, exhibitions, and showcases to explore throughout December and beyond into 2025.

From the roster of ongoing and upcoming events listed on Bustler, here is a brief curated selection of recommendations worth seeing this December.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Design Miami 2024 and Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 | December 3 (and 6, respectively) – 8, Miami Beach

An important fixture in the international design fair calendar is returning to the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 3rd. Catch up on design talks, explore new and exciting work by designers worldwide, participate in workshops, and — while you're in the neighborhood — take a stroll over to the accompanying Art Basel Miami Beach event starting on December 6th.

Taiwan Design Week 2024 | December 7–15, Taipei

The second edition of Taiwan Design Week is under the theme, "The Gateway," which is centered around the subject of AI. The festival will feature exhibitions, talks, an awards program, and networking events, and it will explore the way artists, designers, and scholars use AI as a "gateway" to spur inspiration and create forward-thinking work.

ONGOING EVENTS

Designtide Tokyo 2024 | Until December 1, Tokyo

"In a rapidly changing society, the meaning and role of design are undergoing significant transformation. Simultaneously, the environment for presentation also requires further adaptation. In a world where value is centered around gaining empathy and a level of correctness, what exactly should we be doing through design? It is, once again, distancing ourselves from the current of empathy, and cherishing each 'individual' while allowing freedom to creators. This can create small ripples in society, eventually leading to significant shifts in trends. Becoming part of these ripples, and also behaving completely freely, comes with risks, but we believe that a strong stance and playfulness will demonstrate a great potential against the stagnation of the world. With this belief, we will host DESIGNTIDE TOKYO 2024."

Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been | Until December 30, Chicago

"MAS Context and 150 Media Stream are thrilled to co-present 'Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been' by architectural cartoonist Klaus. The hand-drawn animation, installed on 150 Media Stream’s giant media wall — a 150 ft x 22 ft series of LED screens — features sixty of the most inventive building designs entered in the famed 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower architectural competition, as well as flying machines, elevated walkways, monorail tramways, and other fantastical details dreamed up by the artist."

I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture | Until January 5, 2025, Hong Kong

"The exhibition takes an expanded and closer look at Pei’s practice through six themes representing areas of focus and approaches throughout his career: ‘Pei’s Cross-Cultural Foundations’, ‘Real Estate and Urban Redevelopment’, ‘Art and Civic Form’, ‘Power, Politics, and Patronage’, ‘Material and Structural Innovation’, and ‘Reinterpreting History through Design’. The themes place Pei’s practice in close dialogue with social, cultural, and biographical trajectories that show architecture and life to be inseparable.  The exhibition features a rich selection of drawings, sketches, videos, models, photographs, and other archival documentation, many of which will be on view for the first time."

Teenage Dreams | Until January 5, 2025, Copenhagen

"Through fascinating installations created by recognized design studios such as Our Shift, Natural Material Studio, and Krøyer-Sætter-Lassen, visitors enter into a world where dreams and reality merge. The exhibition focuses on young people and invites you to explore and reflect on what a teenager’s room represents. [...] Each installation is designed to spark reflection and conversations about how spaces impact our well-being and reflect the sign of the times. You can touch new biogenetic materials, recharge your body and phone while lying in what was once a festival tent, and check out the light in the selfie zone where the border between the private and public sphere is dissolved."

100 Women Architects: The Exhibition | Until March 28, 2025, London

"Leading industry voices, writers and academics Dr. Harriet Harriss, Naomi House, Monika Parrinder and Tom Ravenscroft, have garnered international plaudits for their eye-opening book 100 Women: Architects in Practice. Showcasing the largely overlooked stories of women currently making their mark in the architectural world, there have been launch events and press coverage for the book from Dubai to New York, Uzbekistan to South Africa. Now, for the first time, they will make their findings tangible and accessible to the public through 100 Women Architects: The Exhibition. Geographically balanced to feature architects from 79 countries across six continents, the exhibition will amplify their voices, and projects will be illustrated by photos and rendered as simplified 3D paper models, constructed by students from London’s RCA Architecture programme, under the guidance of Interior Design MA tutor Steve Jensen."

The Persistence of Hand Drawing: Interior Rendering Today | Until April 3, 2025, New York City

"The exhibition recently featured in The New York Times explores the timeless art of hand-drawn interiors and celebrates the creativity and skill of contemporary architects and designers who continue to keep this tradition alive. It focuses on hand drawings by 12 established and emerging New York-based architects and interior designers; Mita Corsini Bland, Marshall Brown, John and Christine Gachot, Elizabeth Graziolo, William Georgis of Georgis & Mirgorodsky, Nina Cooke John, Wendy Evans Joseph, Leyden Lewis, Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith/MOS, Gil Schafer with David Netto, Peter Pennoyer, and Douglas Wright."

Why Design? | Until April 5, 2025, New York City

"Why Design? is the Center for Architecture Education Department’s exhibition of K-12 student design work from our Learning By Design:NY in-school residencies and school and Youth and Family workshops held at the Center for Architecture. Why Design? highlights our project-based methods and program themes while celebrating the creativity of our students, Design Educators, and partner teachers."

Future Observatory: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe | Until August 1, 2025, London

"In this free display, discover the urgent research and innovation taking place to design a future for fashion that is both stylish and sustainable. Tomorrow's Wardrobe brings together a diversity of designers from across the fashion industry who are revolutionising the way we create, make, and wear clothes — including Stella McCartney, Ponda, Ahluwalia, Salomon, Ranra, Phoebe English and Vivobarefoot. [...] Tomorrow’s Wardrobe showcases the urgent research and innovation taking place across the UK to rethink how the world of fashion works. Moving from fabric landscapes to design studios to individual garments, the display presents a future built from both high-tech and low-tech tools: sewing machines, robotic arms, artificial intelligence, digital ids, upcycling, recycling and more."

Do you have an architecture or design event you want to promote? Submit it to our event calendar via Bustler for review and a potential feature.