Barbican welcomes World Design Congress 2025 as doors open for two-day “Design for Planet” gathering
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The Barbican welcomes more than 1,000 delegates for the World Design Congress 2025 today.
World Design Congress 2025 will explore how design can accelerate action on the climate and nature crisis. Hosted by the UK’s Design Council on behalf of the World Design Organization, the Congress returns to London for the first time in over 50 years and brings 1,000 members of the international design community together at the Barbican Centre, with both in-person and online participation.
Across keynotes, conversations and hands-on “hive” workshops, the programme examines the Design Council’s Design for Planet mission, spanning circularity, net zero and the regeneration of places, while fostering collaboration between designers, business leaders, policymakers, researchers and educators.
Highlights include headline speakers such as Lord Norman Foster, alongside contributors including Thomas Heatherwick, Mariana Mazzucato, Charlot Magayi and Bas van Abel; the Congress will also feature a special presentation of the WDO World Design Medal 2025 honouring Dieter Rams.
“Welcoming the World Design Congress to the Barbican is a proud moment for our team and for London,” said Charlie Smith, Deputy Head of Sales at the Barbican. “Our incredible architecture, world-class spaces and commitment to sustainable events make this the ideal home for a Congress dedicated to ‘Design for Planet’. Together with the Design Council, we’re set to host two days that spark action as well as inspiration.”
Matthew Burgess, Senior Events Manager at the Design Council added: “We’ve designed this Congress to be a catalyst - bringing designers, business, policymakers and communities together to accelerate climate action. From headline keynotes to hands-on hive sessions, the programme is built to share practical tools, foster collaboration and leave a measurable legacy. We’ve applied our Design Value Framework to track the impact of our decisions across the two days, and working with the Barbican we’re modelling the future we’re advocating.”
Over the next two days the Barbican will feature inspirational keynotes, provocative discussions, intimate conversations, unconferences, book launches and activations, onsite and online, underscoring the venue and the City’s role as a global hub for world-leading design and events.
About Barbican Business Events
The Barbican is one of the world’s leading conference and international arts venues. Located in the City of London, it is capable of holding meetings from 10-2,000 delegates in its fully equipped concert hall, theatres, conference suites and boardrooms. Barbican Business Events brings together the venue’s expertise in the arts and corporate meetings.
Built as part of London’s Barbican development and officially opened in March 1982 by HM Queen Elizabeth, unlike many other venues, Barbican was specifically built with the dual purpose of holding conferences and arts events presenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and creative learning.
The Barbican’s Business Events team contributes to the venue’s future success. To make the most of the Barbican’s rich culture and heritage, Barbican Business Events was created to bring together their expertise in three very different areas – the arts, creative learning and corporate business. This approach to corporate events is based on stronger, more in-depth partnerships with their artistic, creative learning and development teams in order to bring more creativity and rich content to events.
The Barbican provides a vibrant and inspiring venue for corporate events, conferences, meetings and entertainment. The venue is capable of holding meetings from 10-2,000 delegates in spaces including a concert hall, theatres, a boardroom and conference suites that can accommodate 10-170 delegates and can be adjusted using sound proofed sliding. As part of its wider investment strategy, the Barbican spent £2.2m on a significant refurbishment throughout the Centre in the summer of 2016 including its Frobisher rooms and Level 4. The focus of the Frobisher refurbishment is designed to create an even stronger connection between the Centre’s main conference and meeting facilities and its arts spaces.
About the Barbican
A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its creative learning programme further underpins everything it does. Over a million people attend events annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than 300 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas 1, 2 and 3, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, public spaces, a library, the Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.
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