Design Center of The Philippines marks 10th year of International Design Conference with “Designing for The Pluriverse”

The Design Center of the Philippines marks a decade of the International Design Conference (IDC) with its 10th edition on 18 September 2026, at the Foro de Intramuros, City of Manila, bringing together leading voices from the Philippines and around the world to look at how design can respond to the complexity and diversity of the world we live in.

This year’s theme, Designing for the Pluriverse, draws from the work of Arturo Escobar and his view of design as a world-making practice. What we create shapes how we live and how we relate to one another, and in turn, the worlds we create also shape us.

Through the lens of archipelagic thinking, and grounded in pluralism, justice, and care for the Earth, IDC 2026 asks how design can make space for different ways of knowing, living, and creating to coexist. Designing for the Pluriverse also invites us to become better weavers and repairers of the mesh of life by recognizing where relationships between people, communities, and places have been weakened or broken.

Because design is more than making things. It shapes relationships and worlds. And with that comes a responsibility for what our making creates.

For the Philippines, this perspective is especially resonant. As an archipelago, the country is geographically fragmented, yet its islands remain connected through the waters, movements, and exchanges between them. Archipelagic thinking offers another way of seeing the world as distinct places that remain in relation to one another, without a single center or dominant perspective.

The conference features three distinguished keynote speakers: Dr. Jefa Greenaway, Dr. Tita Larasati, and Dr. Grace Nono, alongside Filipino presenters from diverse fields of practice.

Dr. Jefa Greenaway, an Indigenous Australian architect and founding director of Greenaway Architects, is recognized for his work integrating Aboriginal knowledge systems and cultural perspectives into architecture and the built environment. His practice explores how design can engage with culture, identity, country, and indigenous ways of knowing.

Dr. Tita Larasati, an Indonesian industrial designer and educator at the Bandung Institute of Technology, brings extensive experience in sustainable design, material innovation, and design education. Her work examines how design can respond meaningfully to local contexts, resources, and communities.

Dr. Grace Nono, a Filipino ethnomusicologist, Philippine music performing artist, and President of the Tao Foundation for Culture & Arts, brings a scholarly and practice-based perspective rooted in Philippine cultural knowledge and traditions. With a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, her work engages with indigenous knowledge, music, culture, and the ways these can inform a deeper understanding of Philippine identity and experience.

Together, the keynote speakers and local presenters will bring different disciplines, contexts, and ways of knowing into conversation, exploring how we shape the world through design, how what we design shapes us in return, and the responsibility that comes with that.

Beyond the talks, IDC 2026 will feature participatory activations throughout the day to help make the ideas explored in the conference more tangible. Through reflection, making, and exchange, participants are invited to engage with these ideas more directly and deepen their understanding of the conference theme.

“For ten years, the International Design Conference has created a space for ideas, practices, and perspectives that are not in the usual design discussions,” said Rhea Matute, Executive Director of the Design Center of the Philippines. “This year, true to our positioning as a thought-leadership event, we are asking a bigger question: what becomes possible when we recognize that there is more than one way to understand the world, and more than one way to design its future? Designing for the Pluriverse reflects our belief that the diversity of our people, cultures, and knowledge systems is not something to design around. It is something we can design with. And because design shapes relationships and worlds, it also asks us to take responsibility for what we create and for what we may need to repair.”

The International Design Conference is free and open to the public. Interested participants may register and find more information at https://bit.ly/joinidc2026.