Sama All! Design Week Philippines 2026 celebrates its 15th year with design by all, for all

For 15 years, Design Week Philippines has brought together the people shaping Filipino design, from designers and artisans to entrepreneurs, students, cultural workers, communities, and policymakers. What began as a celebration of local design has grown into a nationwide platform for collaboration, discovery, and exchange, where ideas meet, disciplines intersect, and new possibilities take shape and are pursued. 

Held at the Likhang Filipino Exhibition Halls in Pasay City, Design Week Philippines 2026 is the most expansive edition yet. Through talks, workshops, exhibitions, tours, performances, pop-ups, and other design-led experiences, the festival invites people to discover how design shapes the way we live, work, create, connect, and build our shared future. 

Guided by this year’s theme, Sama All, the festival explores a simple but timely idea: no one designs the future alone. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, the challenges and opportunities we face are shared. Design Week Philippines 2026 invites people to look beyond individual perspectives and discover what becomes possible when diverse voices, experiences, and disciplines come together.

Inspired by the familiar Filipino expression sana all, often used when wishing for something better, Sama All transforms that sentiment into an invitation to participate. Rather than simply imagining better futures, it encourages designers, communities, organizations, and citizens to actively shape them through design.

More than a theme, Sama All advances the idea of design that is by all and for all. It is a call to gather, collaborate, learn from one another, and celebrate the many ways design can respond to the realities we share.

The festival reaches its peak with the Design Fair which brings together designers, design advocates, brands, creative entrepreneurs, and the public in a vibrant showcase of products, ideas, and experiences. Alongside the fair, Design Week Philippines unfolds through a growing network of partner-led events happening in different parts of the country.

“This year’s theme was inspired by the familiar Filipino expression sana all,” explained Rhea Matute, Executive Director of the Design Center of the Philippines. “We reimagined it as Sama All to move from simply wishing for a better future to coming together to actively design it. It reflects our belief that the challenges and opportunities we face are shared, and that meaningful change happens when people from different disciplines, communities, and sectors work together. Through Sama All, we invite everyone to participate, collaborate, and contribute their ideas and creativity – their head, heart and hands – in shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future through design.”

In a sentiment springing from the same spirit of interdependence, Cagayan de Oro based Uncurated Studio Design Director and organizer of the Oro Design Conference Karl Adrian Aguro asserts how Design Week Philippines has been serving as a unique meeting ground for Filipino designers and creatives to blend their unique perspectives for real-world impact: 

“Design is more effective when people work together because combining different perspectives turns individual effort into a real community impact, which is exactly what Design Week Philippines 2026 shows by bringing local talent and national partners together to collaborate and share stories.”

The festival’s growing reach reflects the strength of the community behind it. From 110 partner organizations in 2024 to 221 in 2025, Design Week Philippines continues to expand through the institutions, creative groups, businesses, schools, local governments, and communities that contribute to the festival. During the same period, the number of Design Week events grew from 121 to 176 nationwide creating more opportunities for people to experience and engage with design across the country.

Instead of a single centralized programming, Design Week Philippines operates simultaneously across cities and municipalities nationwide encouraging community-led and grassroots design events to show up, turning Sama All into a collective experience where inclusivity takes center stage. As Vivita Philippines Creative Director and Design Week Baguio organizer Candy Alipio shares: 

“Designing together, for me, means designing for the greater good, it means inclusivity, it means thinking beyond ourselves. This year, we are working with new partners and including more fields of design and new experience designed for a wider range of Baguio City locals.”

As it marks its 15th year, Design Week Philippines continues to grow as a festival powered by partnership and participation. From museums and educational institutions to design studios, cultural organizations, local governments, and community groups, partners help bring design to new audiences and contexts. Together, they transform cities, campuses, galleries, creative hubs, and public spaces into places for learning, discovery, collaboration, and exchange.

For the Design Center of the Philippines, the festival is ultimately about the people and organizations that make design happen. 

“Design Week Philippines is really about the partners, practitioners, and communities that are committed to continue to build and strengthen the design ecosystem,” said Matute. “Our role is to create opportunities for people to connect, share, and make space for more voices and perspectives to become part of this design and creative movement.”

Partners are encouraged to develop programs inspired by the spirit of Sama All. These include Design Talks that spark conversations around ideas and contemporary issues; Design Tours that uncover stories behind places, neighborhoods, and creative spaces; Design Workshops that encourage learning through making and collaboration; and Design ATBP., an open platform for exhibitions, performances, installations, pop-ups, and experimental formats that expand how design can be experienced and celebrated. 

In La Union, Hiraya Collective for the Blind joins Design Week Philippines with their program “Hear and Touch the Sky: A Multisensory Star Party and Space Accessibility Program.” Founder and Convenor Eva Marie Wang shares that the event strives for multi-layered learning, enabling participants to experience the space and the stars through touch, smell, and taste. 

She notes: “When people from different walks of life come together, designing with a shared intention becomes more layered, nuanced and caring: a practice of Sama All.”

Across talks, workshops, exhibitions, tours, installations, performances, and community-led initiatives, Design Week Philippines 2026 is a space where people discover how design connects us and how design can help shape better futures for all. 
Because design is more powerful when we design together.