London Design Festival 2026

Cooking Sections investigates the systems that shape the world through food, tracing the spatial, ecological and political legacies of extractivism. Using site-responsive installations, performances and video, their practice confronts the overlapping boundaries of art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics. Founded in London in 2013 by Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, Cooking Sections uses food as both a lens and a tool to trace the metabolic relations behind industrialised food systems. Since 2015, they run CLIMAVORE, a long-term, site-responsive project, exploring how to eat as humans change climates and how to metabolise climate breakdown. Alon and Daniel are Readers in Architecture and Spatial Practice at the Royal College of Art, London, where they lead CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA. They are Fellows at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Cooking Sections investigates the systems that shape the world through food, tracing the spatial, ecological and political legacies of extractivism. Using site-responsive installations, performances and video, their practice confronts the overlapping boundaries of art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics. Founded in London in 2013 by Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, Cooking Sections uses food as both a lens and a tool to trace the metabolic relations behind industrialised food systems. Since 2015, they run CLIMAVORE, a long-term, site-responsive project, exploring how to eat as humans change climates and how to metabolise climate breakdown. Alon and Daniel are Readers in Architecture and Spatial Practice at the Royal College of Art, London, where they lead CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA. They are Fellows at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Mireia Luzárraga is an architect, educator and co-founder of TAKK, an architecture and research studio based in Barcelona and New York, together with Alejandro Muiño. Her work investigates how architecture can contribute to more equitable ways of living through feminist and ecological approaches to design. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Columbia University GSAPP in New York, where she directs the First Year Core Design Studio, and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. Through TAKK, she develops projects across scales—from domestic spaces to large-scale public installations—addressing questions of materiality, energy, and coexistence among human and non-human agents. Her work has received awards such as the COAM Award, the Temps de les Arts Award, and the FAD Award, and has been exhibited internationally at the Venice, Oslo, and Chicago Architecture Biennials; FRAC Centre-Val de Loire; Matadero Madrid; and MAK Vienna. Her projects and writings have been featured in leading architecture and design publications including Arquitectura Viva , Domus , Abitare , L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui , and Plot , as well as in general media such as El País , El Mundo , and Architectural Digest .

Beatrice Galilee is a London-born, NewYork-based curator, critic, and cultural advisor, internationally recognized for her expertise in global contemporary practice. She is the co-founder and executive director of The World Around, the global platform for design and architecture and the author of Radical Architecture of the Future (Phaidon, 2021). Through The World Around, Galilee has developed programs and collaborations with leading cultural institutions including the Guggenheim, MoMA, TriennaleMilano, and Shanghai Power Station of Art. In 2022, she founded the Young Climate Prize, a global mentorship program for under-25s. From 2014 to 2019, Galilee served as the inaugural curator of contemporary architecture and design at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she established and expanded the museum’s program through exhibitions, commissions, public programs and acquisitions. Her curatorial appointments include Chief Curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013), curator of the Gwangju Design Biennale (2011), curator of the Shenzhen–Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2009), and curator of the Design Museum’s Beazley Designs of the Year (2019). She has held editorial roles at Domus , Icon , contributed to catalogues, books and publications worldwide. Galilee is a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute, where she lectures on curating.

Fondatrice dell’African Futures Institute e curatrice della 18. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura della Biennale di Venezia.

Professor Lale Özgenel has been a faculty member at the Faculty of Architecture, Middle East Technical University (METU), since 1992. She received her bachelor’s degree in architecture, her master's degree in architectural history and her doctorate in architecture from the Department of Architecture at METU. She conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford University, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the American Academy in Rome. She has also worked as an architect and survey team member on international archaeological projects. She has held several academic and administrative positions, including Advisor to the Rector of METU (2008-2016), Head of the Fine Arts and Music Department at METU (2011-2016), Head of Architectural History Graduate Program at METU (2012-2015), Member of the Board of Trustees at TED University (2015-2018) and President of the Architects’ Association 1927 (2016-2021). In collaboration with various academic institutions and non-governmental organizations, she has developed national and international projects with a focus on architectural history, architectural education, professional practice and architectural culture, and organized numerous academic and professional events. Her research interests include ancient domestic architecture, the history of housing and daily life, rural architecture and the history of tennis in Turkey. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in architectural history and leads a group in the 4th year architectural design studio. She actively engages in architectural practice through architectural competitions and architectural design research and consultancy projects carried out under the university's revolving fund. Her professional experience and expertise span architectural design, implementation and programming, particularly in residential, educational and cultural buildings. Since 2019 she has served as vice president of Ankara Citizens’ Assembly, working with a broad network of individuals, institutions and organizations to support local governance and contribute to the development of Ankara.

Guta Moura Guedes is a Portuguese curator, cultural strategist, and thought leader whose work has profoundly shaped the international landscape of design, architecture, and contemporary culture over the past three decades. She is Chairwoman of Experimenta, the Lisbon-based cultural association she co-founded in 1998, and co-creator of the Lisbon design biennale, experimentadesign (1999–2017). Under her direction, Portugal’s pioneering design biennale became a global reference, bringing together leading voices in design, architecture, and critical thought, and presenting groundbreaking exhibitions in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Milan, London, and beyond. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Terrafoundation (2023), a collaborative platform exploring the intersection of culture, climate action, and social engagement, based in Portugal’s Comporta region, where she continues to push the boundaries of interdisciplinary cultural practice. She served as Director of the Fundação Casa da Música and as a Member of the Executive Board of the Fundação Centro Cultural de Belém, one of Portugal’s most important cultural institutions, to which she was appointed by the Portuguese Government. Among other roles, she served on the Board of the first World Design Capital; as Commissioner of the Portuguese Design Year; as a member of the International Think Tank for the Scottish event Six Cities Design Festival ; and on the Editorial Committee of Utrecht Manifest Design 2007 in the Netherlands. Her curatorial projects - from Flexibility: Design in a Fast-Changing Society in Turin to Common Sense at Glass House in São Paulo, Still Motion at Triennale di Milano, and Set in Stone at Design Museum in London - reflect her ability to articulate contemporary narratives through design and architecture, engaging with broader societal issues such as sustainability, cultural heritage, gender perspectives, and urban transformation.

Born in Ankara, Özlem Yalım graduated from METU Industrial Design (BSc) in 1995. She is living and working in Istanbul. Yalım has worked across product design, spatial design, exhibition design, brand strategy, corporate communications, and creative industries. After co-founding Kilit Taşı Mimarlık, she held senior roles at Terminal Design, Adressistanbul and Koleksiyon, focusing on project management, product development, design and brand direction. In 2009, she proposed the idea of the Istanbul Design Biennial to İKSV and later realised it as Biennial Director between 2010 and 2012. She left her role as Biennial Director in 2013 and İKSV in 2014, where she had continued to work on special projects and consultancy for BE. She appeared on NTV’s Türk Mucit in 2007 and was named among “Turkey’s 50 Most Creative People” by TurkishTime in 2011 and 2012. Between 2015 and 2025, she served as Strategic Brand Director at TEPTA Lighting, working with nearly 100 global brands and leading strategic positioning, international brand communication, corporate structuring, digitalization, communications, and sponsorship relations. In 2025, she founded Vanguardis Strategy and Design, where she provides consultancy in brand strategy, corporate communications, marketing communications, design, and product development. Since 2017, her articles on creative industries have appeared in Cumhuriyet Pazar, T24, Gazete Pencere and Gazete Duvar. Yalim currently writes weekly at Medyascope and at Cumhuriyet.

Andrew is a Founding Director of Waugh Thistleton Architects, a practice dedicated to delivering beautiful buildings and places that acknowledge their impact on the environment. Working in the field of mass timber and low carbon construction methods for a decade, Andrew has earned international recognition as a global leader in the development of sustainable building practices. Lecturing, teaching and lobbying to accelerate the green transition of the construction economy, Andrew travels globally communicating the urgent need to transform our building practices to mitigate the climate crisis. A pivotal player in the global shift towards renewable, bio-based materials in construction, Andrew's innovative approach to design has been acknowledged by many awards including the RIBA President's Award for Research and a Stirling Prize nomination in 2018 and the Architects' Journal Practice of the Year award for 2023. In 2023, Waugh Thistleton's Black & White building, a fully engineered mass timber office block in London, received both an RIBA London and National Award. The practice is currently engaged on both research and design projects throughout Europe and North America, securing a four year research project with the EU Horizon into creating a truly circular construction economy through the use of mass timber building systems. An influential figure in the low carbon design movement, Andrew is a founding member of Architects Declare, a group dedicated to advancing the use of biogenic materials and low carbon alternatives to traditional, high-carbon building. Regularly working with research institutions and advising on government policy, Waugh Thistleton has established itself as a world leader in sustainable architecture under his healm.

Anastasia Sinitsyna is a researcher and curator working at the intersection of environmental humanities, design, and spatial practices. Based in Venice, Italy, she leads the Aral Sea region development projects of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), including the Aral Culture Summit, Aral School, and revitalisation of the Istiqlol Park — long-term initiatives dedicated to cultural and ecological regeneration in Central Asia. Since 2022, she has also led communications and public engagement for the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, shaping its local presence and cultural partnerships. Her work builds bridges between culture, science, and public engagement, focusing on how art and education can inspire sustainable futures. Rooted in media and urban studies, and shaped by experiences in documentary filmmaking in Mexico, The Terraforming programme at Strelka Institute, and a master’s in Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, she previously curated the Foodscapes residency and public programme for the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2023).

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.

London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.