The World Around Summit 2024

The World Around, a New York-based nonprofit organization that champions architecture’s now, near and next, invites you to its fifth Annual Summit, co-presented with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and taking place Saturday May 11, 2024, 1-6PM. Tickets are available now and registration is open for a free livestream.

The summit’s day-long series of talks and conversations will spotlight new projects from all over the world with a focus on the intersection of architecture with ecological and social justice.  An interdisciplinary line-up will present new approaches to landscape and urbanism, material innovation, housing and cultural spaces, intended to share the extraordinary ways architects and designers are meeting the challenges of our time.  A panel discussion exploring the planetary landscape is presented and co-curated together with The World Around’s global cultural partner, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. As part of the nonprofit’s mission to make its programing accessible to all, the summit will be live-streamed in its entirety. 

Speakers at The World Around Summit 2024 include:

Germane Barnes, Studio B-arn-S—This Miami-based architecture practice disrupting the status quo, committed to hands-on, research-driven design in service of social transformation in the USA will give an insight into their process 

Niklas Bildstein Zaar, Sub—Director of the Berlin-based studio whose work encompasses emerging technologies, semantic analysis, and behavioral research alongside traditional architectural techniques shares recent work at the intersection of fashion, space and architecture

Joe Christa Giraso, MASS Design Group—One of the nonprofit design group’s leading landscape designers will speak on a mission to promote social and environmental justice, advocating a deeper approach to ‘sustainability’ rooted in place, community, and care on ongoing projects in Rwanda

Emanuele Coccia, philosopher, writer—The reknown philosopher reveals the dependencies between all life on earth to write an aesthetics for the Anthropocene Era in his new book, The Philosophy of Home

Béatrice Grenier, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain—The curator and writer will share the impact of innovative landscape architecture projects schemes across the globe

Nguyễn Hà, ARB Vietnam—An award-winning Vietnamese architect plays with history and poetry in an orchard site to preserve a space of spirituality at the Dao Mau Museum and Temple on the outskirts of Hanoi

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, artist —Installation artist whose practice explores environmental storytelling through video games, VR, sound installations and immersive environments shares moments from a new dynamic installation  

Mae-ling Lokko, architectural scientist—Inspiring new work from the architectural scientist, designer and educator from Ghana and the Philippines on her work with agro-waste and renewable bio-based materials 

Jing Liu & Florian Idenburg, SO–IL—The directors of Brooklyn-based architecture practice envisioning new urban housing models in Brooklyn, New York through homes that invite the outdoors in

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art—Celebrated curator, author, educator, and public advocate bringing her vision to redefine the role of art museums today to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles

Sameep Padora, Sameep Padora & Associates—A landscape architecture firm based in Mumbai, attending to the landscape’s material histories to shape an architecture at one with its context in South India

Ernesto Picco, journalist, author—An investigative journalist documenting the destructive race to power the green transition in South America’s Lithium Triangle

Rossanna Hu & Lyndon Neri, Neri & Hu—A Shanghai-based architecture studio bringing their characteristic tactile minimalism and attention to massing to the extension of Xi’an’s Qujiang Museum of Fine Arts

Alexis Sablone, designer, artist, skateboarder—An Olympic athlete making ‘skateable’ public art across Europe and the USA to invite urban communities to play in their cities

Lisa Switkin, Field Operations—A landscape architect behind some of New York City’s most revered public parks, including the High Line, Domino Park, and Gansevoort Peninsula

Ma Yansong, MAD Architects—One of China’s most prominent designers drawing on nature to design a landmark arts institution into the cultural fabric of Los Angeles 

Kongjian Yu, Turenscape—A China-based landscape architecture and urbanism practice, building on tradition to reconnect communities to the earth and steward the environment for future generations

The World Around Summit 2024 is co-presented by The World Around and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The World Around’s Global Cultural Partner is Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Support for The World Around Summit 2024 comes from Partners Unifor, The World Around Circles and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. 

For inquiries about partnering with The World Around please contact: inquiries [​at​] theworldaround.com.