IDW 2026: International Design Workshop Week

Winter School on International Design

Description

The goal of the yearly International Design Workshop week is to trigger the creative and critical design attitude among master students in (Interior) Architecture, Product Development, Urbanism & Spatial Planning, Heritage Studies and Visual Arts.  An interdisciplinary group of 15 to 20 master students engage in an intense one-week critical design adventure, guided by an international tutor (duo).

Program

IDW 2026 - BE+LONGING

In a world marked by constant change, migration, fragmentation, and hyper-connectivity, the question of where and how we belong has become more urgent than ever. Belonging is about more than identity—it is about relationships, rituals, language, care, and the spaces we inhabit, claim, and share.

BE+LONGING invites us to explore the complex relationship between being and longing—to ask not only where we belong, but what we long for. To belong is to feel seen, rooted, included. But it also requires us to reckon with systems of exclusion, histories of displacement, and the deep human desire for connection.

IDW 2026 encourages designers to see longing not as a lack, but as a generative force. To treat belonging not as a static state, but as an ongoing process—a becoming. Let’s design spaces, futures, and imaginaries where everyone can belong

• Organized by the Faculty of Design Sciences (University of Antwerp) in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
• You will be assigned to the workshop of your choice. Discover all the workshops here!

Remarks

3 ECTS credits are awarded upon successful completion of the programme. All certificates of completion are issued as a micro-credential.