Your guide to ID Symposium 2026

DAY 1: DESIGN AS A FORCE TO RECKON WITH 

Day one begins with a spirited conversation on how design rarely pays heed to borders or boundaries today, including special co-authored sessions by the Luxury Committee at Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Business France and Wallmakers. 

Architect and designer India Mahdavi takes the stage alongside EDIDA winner Vikram Goyal of Viya Design to discuss how sometimes the most original contemporary works are borne outside mainstream discourse, shaped by craft, material and narratives from across the globe. Journalist and author Gayatri Rangachari Shah will be moderating this vibrant session! 

Can design ever be relegated to merely the tangible? This exciting panel discussion breaks down how both India and France interpret service, storytelling and designing experiences.  

Laure Daynié (Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Air France), Hemant Mediratta (Representative, Galeries Lafayette), and Ludivine Zangerlé (Vice President, Sales, Luxury & Lifestyle IMEAPAC, Accor), moderated by Sheetal Munshaw (Director, Atout France India), break down how design shapes felt experiences in the 21st century. 

Materiality speaks of more than we know. The third dialogue of the day breaks down how material intelligence can be both knowledge and strategy, especially in an environment where innovation must carry both impact and fulfil business metrics. Catch Hemant Sagar (Co-founder, Lecoanet Hemant) in conversation with Manju Sara Rajan (Writer, Editor & Arts Manager) as they detail more on this precipice! 

Design and culture are difficult to untangle. Where one begins and where the other ends is a topic up for contention — a task this round table is eager to tackle! The panel discusses design as a cultural translator with Cédric Brochier (President, Brochier Soieries 1890), Mayank Mansingh Kaul (Writer & Curator) and Paolo Caratelli (Associate Professor & Head of Research, Instituto Marangoni Dubai). Moderated by Peter D’Ascoli (Creative Director, Talianna Studio), the session is certain to be one for the books! 

What does it take to create a sustainable design practice? Expanding upon their own multivaried journeys, Rahul Bhushan (Founder & Director, NORTH), Kirti Jalan (Principal Designer, Kirti Jalan Design Studio), Udit Mittal (Principal Architect, QX Design), and Radhika Soni (Senior Architect, Auroville Earth Institute) come together for an exciting panel discussion co-authored and moderated by Vinu Daniel (Founder & Principal Architect, Wallmakers).

The last panel discussion of the day is unmissable! As Asian Paints unveils the ColourNext hue of the year for 2026, Amit Syngle (MD & CEO, Asian Paints), Ria Chopra (Writer), Rigzin Wangmo Lachic, (Founder, Dolkhar Ladakh), Samuel Barclay (Co-founder & Principal, Case Design), and Ravi Vazirani (Principal Designer, Ravi Vazirani Design Studio) come together at ID Symposium 2026 to decode where the contemporary design landscape is headed. 

DAY 2: EVOLUTION, ADAPTATION AND LEGACY 

The second day of ID Symposium 26 includes special co-authored sessions by Iram Sultan Design Studio, Studio Archohm and The Design Village.

In the 21st century, what frameworks should we interpret design through? Decoding the plurality of how architecture and design are evolving today, Diversifying Narratives on the Global Stage takes centre stage as the first design dialogue of the day at ID Symposium. Mateo Kries (Director, Vitra Design Museum) sits down in conversation with Gunjan Gupta (Creative Director & Founder, Studio Wrap, Gunjan Gupta Collectibles and Ikkis) for a session moderated by Misha Bains (Fair Director, India Design ID). 

Ingrid Schroder (Director, Architectural Association School of Architecture) sits down in conversation with Neelkanth Chhaya (Architect & Former Dean, CEPT University) to reimagine architectural pedagogies for the second design dialogue of the day. Co-authored and moderated by Mridu Sahai Patnaik (Co-founder, The Design Village & Partner, Studio Archohm), the session bridges academia, practice and planetary urgency to decode the path ahead for emerging architects and creatives — and how to spark newer ways of thinking. 

Is technology truly the way ahead for design? Evolving Design Methodologies: Tools, Processes, and Creation in the Hyper-digital Age is a panel discussion that brings together four leading architects to unpack the paradoxical shifts that define the landscape of creation today. Amit Khanna (Design Principal, AKDA) sits down in conversation with Sidhartha Talwar (Founder & Design Principal, STA+D), Smaran Mallesh (Principal Architect, Cadence Architects), for a discussion co-authored and moderated by Iram Sultan (Principal Designer, Iram Sultan Design Studio). 

Day 2 comes to an end with a lively panel discussion titled Building legacy: Design in the Era of Globalisation. It brings together Alexander Dornbracht of Kallista & Robern, Zafar Choudhary of Habitat Architects and Pierre-Arnaud Cassin of Ultraconfidentiel Design for a session moderated by Devika Khosla of The Works Interiors. The agenda? Unpacking what bearing a legacy means in the modern age, as well as how globalisation’s far-reaching impact on design has impacted us all for better or for worse.

DAY 3: DESIGNING FOR A MODERN LIFE 

The final day includes special co-authored sessions by Studio Archohm and The Design Village.

At the final day of ID Symposium 2026, Between Abstraction and Impact: Objects, Garments, and Spaces as Creative Frameworks sets the tone as multidisciplinary designer Samuel Ross of SR_A joins Tanya Khanna of Epistle Communications to trace how fashion, architecture and industrial design become vessels to explore body, place and identity.

The lens widens with Mindful Megastructures: Behaviour and Image of Architecture, where Professor Paul Hekkert (Professor of Form Theory, TU Delft) and Sourabh Gupta (Founder, Studio Archohm) examine how cities, infrastructure and public space influence behaviour while balancing cultural expression with functionality.

Celebrating cross-disciplinary exchange, Stories of Syncretism brings together Suparna Handa (MD, Sarita Handa), Mandeep Nagi Housego (Creative Director, Shades of India) and Punit Jasuja (Founder, Second Floor Studio), moderated by Suneet Zishan Langar (Director of Editorial & Global Partnerships, Epistle), to map how Indian brands blend heritage, collaboration and global language into a new design identity.

Material curiosity takes centre stage in Exercises in Making: In Search of the Well-made, where British designer Max Lamb and Deeptashree Saha of Vernacular Modern treat making as thinking, reflecting on experimentation, humility and the poetry of process.

The series concludes with Aditya Prakash and the Design of Chandigarh Modernism, as Professor Vikramaditya Prakash (Professor of Architecture, University of Washington) and Deepak Srinath (Founder, Phantom Hands) revisit Chandigarh’s modernist legacy, reframing it as a living inquiry shaped by climate, craft and everyday life rather than a fixed architectural style.

ID Symposium 2026 is all set to take place from 19th February to 21st February in New Delhi. Book your tickets now!