The 10 best architecture and design exhibitions of 2024
Dezeen Events Guide has selected some of the best exhibitions featured on the site in 2024, from architecture spotlights to cafe takeovers.
A Fragile Correspondence and Design You Can Feel are among the architecture and design events featured in Dezeen Events Guide this year.
Other event highlights include Arab Design Now, I Will Follow the Ship and Origin of Simplicity: 20 Visions of Japanese Design.
Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design
2 September 2023 to 25 August 2024, USA
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City held an exhibition exploring a circular economy and materiality, displaying projects made from reused or regenerated matters.
Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design spotlighted objects such as bricks and lamps made from fungi and manure, encouraging visitors to think about alternative uses for waste materials.
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
13 February to 26 May 2024, UK
The work of more than 50 global artists was on display at London's Barbican this year, in an exhibition presenting tapestries and textiles that depict and explore themes of oppression and power, identity and community.
The exhibition featured more than 100 pieces of various scales, materials and colours, addressing the use of textiles beyond domestic spaces.
Dezeen was a media partner of Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art.
Arab Design Now
24 February to 5 August 2024, Qatar
Arab Design Now was the largest exhibition in the Design Doha 2024 programme, celebrating the inaugural edition of the biennial festival.
Curated by Rana Beiruti, the exhibition aimed to spotlight the heritage of Middle Eastern, Asian and North African regions through contemporary design and traditional crafts.
The exhibition included the work of designers Abeer Seikaly, Anne Holtrop (pictured), Omar Chakil and Sama El Saket.
Dezeen was a media partner of Design Doha 2024.
Origin of Simplicity: 20 Visions of Japanese Design
23 March to 9 June 2024, Italy
Curated by Rossella Menegazzo for the ADI Design Museum in Milan, the Origin of Simplicity: 20 Visions of Japanese Design exhibition displayed over 150 designs.
The showcase focused on simple designs, each an interpretation of quintessential Japanese design.
Bar Unikko by Marimekko and Apartamento
15 to 21 April 2024, Italy
During Milan design week 2024, lifestyle brand Marimekko partnered with interior design magazine Apartamento to launch a takeover of Bar Stoppani.
The event saw the cafe decorated with Unikko poppy print to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the pattern, designed by Maija Isola in 1964.
I Will Follow the Ship
20 April to 24 November 2024, Italy
I Will Follow the Ship was Malta's pavilion contribution to the Venice Art Biennale 2024, created by artist Matthew Attard and curated by Elyse Tonna and Sara Dolfi Agostini.
The installation aimed to contrast cultural heritage, referencing Mediterranean chapels, with modern technologies such as virtual reality (VR).
I M Pei: Life is Architecture
29 June 2024 to 5 January 2025, Hong Kong
Works by Chinese-American architect IM Pei are on display at this retrospective at M+ Museum in Hong Kong, including models, sketches, photographs and videos.
The exhibition explores Pei's 70-year-long career through six categories: 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.
Design You Can Feel
17 to 22 September 2024, UK
Dezeen partnered with technology company ASUS to create the Design You Can Feel exhibition for London Design Festival 2024.
The exhibition spotlighted the brand's new material, named Ceraluminum, showcasing furniture, lighting and installations incorporating it, as well as its Zenbook laptop.
Included in Design You Can Feel was a specially commissioned piece by design and research studio Future Facility.
The World of Tim Burton
25 October 2024 to 21 April 2025, UK
The Design Museum in London is currently exhibiting the World of Tim Burton, exploring the universes of the characters created by the director and artist.
The display includes installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings, photography and video from the sets and costumes of Burton's films.
A Fragile Correspondence
22 November 2024 to 25 May 2025, UK
This ongoing exhibition held at V&A Dundee aims to demonstrate the relationship between architecture and land through Scotland's Highlands, Lowands and islands.
The exhibition was first displayed at the 2023 edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, created to follow the festival's theme Laboratory of the Future.
About Dezeen Events Guide
Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year. The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.
Inclusion in the guide is free for basic listings, with events selected at Dezeen's discretion. Organisers can get standard, enhanced or featured listings for their events, including images, additional text and links, by paying a modest fee.
In addition, events can ensure inclusion by partnering with Dezeen. For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide and media partnerships with Dezeen, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.
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