Eleven days. 43 Open Studios. 44 events. One city-wide invitation to step inside Vancouver’s architecture and design community.
Design Vancouver Festival returns September 17 to 27, 2026, with open studios, architecture tours, talks, exhibitions, workshops, film screenings, gatherings, and public programs taking place across the city.
Hosted by Vancouver’s architecture and design community, DVF invites the public to experience design up close and meet the people shaping the spaces, objects, and experiences around us.
The theme for 2026 is BUILD.
Yes, we are talking about what gets physically built. But BUILD is also about strengthening relationships across disciplines, connecting neighbourhoods, supporting emerging voices, and growing a more visible and connected design community.
Designers, architects, students, studios, cultural organizations, businesses, and curious members of the public are all invited to take part.
Bring your curiosity. Comfortable shoes would also be a smart design decision.
Festival Highlights
The full festival schedule launches in early August. Until then, here is a first look at some of what is being built for DVF 2026.
DVF Opening Night: PechaKucha
The festival begins at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with a special PechaKucha edition featuring voices from Vancouver’s architecture, design, craft, food, art, and creative communities.
Following the PechaKucha format of 20 images shown for 20 seconds each, presenters will share the ideas, processes, and stories behind their work.
Open Studios and Design Districts
More than 40 architecture and design studios will open their doors, giving visitors a rare opportunity to step inside the places where ideas are developed, tested, debated, and made.
Meet studio teams, see work in progress, learn about materials and creative processes, and discover the range of design practices operating across Vancouver.
New this year, Design Districts will group participating studios by neighbourhood, creating a more walkable and connected Open Studios experience across the Armoury District and Granville Island, Downtown and Gastown, and Mount Pleasant.
A DVF 2026 preview map offers an early look at participating studios, venues, tours, and events across the city.
Kids and Family Programs
DVF is expanding its programming for children, young people, and families through hands-on activities exploring architecture, design, and the built environment.
With partners including the Vancouver Art Gallery and Arts Umbrella, these programs use creativity, making, and world-building to introduce young minds to the idea that design is part of everyday life.
TWIG Tours: Mass Timber – Design to Occupancy
A guided tour exploring mass timber from design to occupancy, highlighting material innovation, sustainability, and the future of construction in British Columbia.
Addapt Prototype – Home Tour
A tour of the first completed home built on the Addapt system, offering a firsthand look at a new approach to residential design and construction by Leckie Studio.
Bike & Build with Tomo & MGA
Bike and Build is a playful morning of fort building. Bring your bike, friends, or kids. Natalie Telewiak of MGA leads a 30-minute ride from Strathcona to Stanley Park, where we’ll build forts in teams—part design challenge, part hangout.
ARRAY: Inside the Installation Workshop
A hands-on workshop offering a behind-the-scenes look at the making of ARRAY, exploring installation design, process, materiality, and spatial experience.
Type Brigade
A typography speaker series, talks about type, their love for letterforms, discovering new technologies, sharing projects, and learning with other type enthusiasts.
OBJ:OBJ Exhibition
An exhibition exploring objects, design, and material culture through the work of local makers and designers.
Dinner Beyond the Menu: Touski
A dining experience that looks beyond the menu to explore food, design, hospitality, and the creative decisions that shape how we gather.
Architecture of Dessert
A program exploring dessert as a designed object, where structure, form, material, craft, and sensory experience come together.
DVF Design Film: Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz
A design film screening at The Park Theatre exploring the work of Emilio Ambasz, a pioneer of green architecture and the relationship between buildings, nature, and climate impact.
Start Planning Your Festival
These highlights are only the beginning. DVF 2026 will also include exhibitions, workshops, dinners, walking tours, talks, installations, social gatherings, and collaborations with studios, schools, cultural organizations, businesses, and neighbourhood partners across Vancouver.
Many festival events will be free or low-cost. Revenue from ticketed programs helps support production, staffing, venues, and participating partners.
The full festival website, schedule, and ticket information will launch in early August. In the meantime, explore the DVF 2026 preview map for a first look at what is taking shape across the city.
Follow @designvanfest on Instagram for festival updates and announcements, and visit designvancouver.org for the full schedule and ticket information.
Vancouver’s design community is already here. This September, the doors open. Come see what we are building, and help us build what comes next.