NYCxDesign 2026 Will Activate the Design Community Across the Boroughs

From an opening night party within Downtown Manhattan’s HALO 28 to “SHINE,” this year’s festival exhibition featuring original light objects by 70 designers, and a calendar brimming with official events, talks, and tours, NYCxDesign will soon engage and inspire the design community across the five boroughs. Running May 14–20, with some ancillary events already in motion, New York City’s most comprehensive design gathering will encompass more than 250 happenings for some 163,000 expected attendees.

More so than ever, NYCxDesign will activate multiple neighborhoods, specifically with dedicated events—from Soho Design Night to Chelsea Design Night, NoMad Design District, Harlem Design District, and Madison Avenue Upper East Side Design Week. The city’s educational institutions will also play an integral role, including Pratt Shows: Design, Parsons End of Year Student Exhibition, and FIT’s Graduating Student Exhibition.

This year’s anticipatory highlights range from Oui Design! 2026 at Villa Albertine, an immersive assembly of French craftspeople and designers, to the debut of “Luminous,” Presented by Calico Wallpaper in collaboration with Suchi Reddy, Eden by Camille Okhio at the Vitra showroom, and the latest edition of Afternoon Light Design Fair at WSA. ICFF will also host a night out series with Moroso, Lixil Water Experience Center, and Flos (who coordinated the reopening of its flagship with NYCxDesign).

From the scale of The Dumbo Projection Project: V7, which will cast video works onto the BQE and the Manhattan Bridge, to the intimacy of Leanne Ford’s collaborative home collection at il Buco Vita, and the wondrous nature of “Haas Brothers Uncanny Valley” at the Museum of Art and Design, the city-wide festival once again demonstrates depth and consideration for the community. With MillerKnoll, Lumens, House of Santal, Kvadrat and Raf Simons, Twenty First Gallery, Foscarini, Frette, Baccarat, MUJI, and more participating, NYCxDesign positions itself at the forefront of the design conversation.