Barcelona Design Week 2026
By Charlotte Stace
Barcelona has emerged as one of Europe’s most exciting design hotspots, making this event a must for anyone interested in the cutting edge of creativity. Barcelona Design Week returns with the theme PRO-TEST. It will be looking at design as something active, experimental and ready to be challenged. This year’s focus is on process: prototypes, testing, trial and error, and the space where ideas meet real materials, people and problems.
The programme spreads across the city with talks, exhibitions, workshops, installations, awards and design experiences centred on food. Highlights include Rethinking Design Today, Design & AI: a Latin American Perspective, Pro-Test Kitchen: From Prototype to Plate, Design in Action: ADG Laus Awards 2026, Underground BDW, and Next Gen Design.It’s a week where design means much more than nice chairs and clever branding.
It’s about how things are made, tested and improved, from furniture, lighting and typography to AI, sustainability, public space, food, interiors and the future of everyday life.