Five International Architecture Festivals Worth Building a Trip Around

Five International architecture Festivals Worth Building a Trip Around

From Belgium to New Zealand, cities around the world roll out the red carpet for architecture aficionados. Back in the early aughts, a small group of Palm Springs residents banded together to organize a symposium exploring and celebrating the architecture style the desert resort is renowned for, Midcentury Modernism.

Held in 2006, Palm Springs’ inaugural Modernism Weekend hosted a mere 300 attendees and offered a program of just six events. But in the two decades since, the event has metastasized from a humble weekend affair to an 11-day economy-sustaining juggernaut, bringing thousands upon thousands of visitors from every corner of the globe to the desert community to enjoy a schedule packed to the proverbial rafters with home tours, lectures, high-end auctions, film screenings, come-one-come-all cocktail parties, and exclusive fundraising galas.

modernism week – Palm Springs, California February 15 – 25, 2024

Palm Springs’ modernism week continues to attract new attendees and keep previous ones coming back year after year with a mix of reliable annual favorites and carefully curated brand-new events. Highlights among this year’s offerings include a rare tour of the 2-acre grounds of the Richard Neutra-designed Kaufmann Desert House and a lecture on ceramic murals by celebrated sculptor and ceramist Stan Bitters.

ART DECO FESTIVAL – Napier, New Zealand February 15 – 18, 2024

Located on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, Napier celebrates its unique architectural heritage with a three-day jubilee. Festivalgoers can explore the town’s bounty of well-preserved, extravagantly detailed Art Deco structures. The festival also provides opportunities for vintage car and motorcycle parades, 1930s fashion shows, an antiques-and-collectibles fair, and a formal, vintage-attire-required ball.

brussels ART NOUVEAU & ART DECO FESTIVAL – brussels, Belgium March 9 – 24, 2024

The capital of Belgium and the EU, brussels is known as the Art Nouveau capital, boasting nearly 1,000 buildings designed in the ornately expressive style. The festival provides participants the opportunity to tour dozens of the metropolis’s Art Nouveau and Deco treasures, many of which are normally inaccessible to the public.

CONCÉNTRICO FESTIVAL OF architecture & DESIGN – Logroño, Spain April 25 – May 1, 2024

Launched in 2015, the Concéntrico Festival of architecture and Design temporarily transforms the ancient city of Logroño in northern Spain into a vibrant playground of innovation and creativity. The upcoming festival features a new competition, “The Street in 10 years,” wherein five teams will be selected to design an area of the city with a 10-year strategy.

LONDON FESTIVAL OF architecture – London, England June 1 – 30, 2024

The largest architecture festival in the world, the London Festival of architecture takes place across the city every June. Along with design competitions, and talks by renowned architects such as Pritzker winner David Chipperfield, the month-long celebration offers hands-on workshops teaching participants things like masonry and designing a geodesic dome.

Nowadays, architecture and design buffs can find major festivals taking place all over the world that are dedicated to a wide range of vernaculars, including Victorian, Colonial, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Midcentury Modern, Contemporary, and futuristic. Robb Report has rounded up five of the most notable upcoming events to add to your travel calendar.

Whether you seek the nostalgia of Midcentury Modernism in Palm Springs, the exuberant Art Deco style in Napier, the expressive Art Nouveau and Art Deco treasures in Brussels, the vibrant playground of creativity in Logroño, or the largest architecture festival in the world in London, these international architecture festivals are worth building a trip around.

Source: robbreport