The calendar from January to April paints a fairly clear picture of where the professional conversation is heading: building with less, building faster and better coordinated, and putting materiality (CMF) back at the centre. In other words: sustainability with metrics, industrialisation with craftsmanship, and a return to the sensory experience of space, from the envelope to the last handle. We highlight the key design, architecture and interior design events in the first quarter of 2026.
Scale and matter: from megaproject to workshop
The first signal comes from the Middle East with Big 5 Construct Saudi (January 18–21), a trade fair that functions as a scale radar: infrastructures, systems, enclosures and technical packages that force us to think about standards, logistics and specification in high-intensity projects.
Almost as a counterpoint -and complement- appears Eurobois (February 3-6, Lyon), where wood and its industry are presented without filters: machinery, processing, carpentry, solutions for specification. For studios that work with warm and detailed interiors (panelling, doors or built-in furniture), it’s an opportunity to keep track of how the craft is becoming increasingly technological.
Meanwhile, the Spanish cultural agenda is activated with Madrid Design Festival (February 5–March 8): exhibitions and installations as a barometer of imaginaries, materials and narratives.
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March, the pivotal month: when method catches up with narrative
March becomes a pivotal month. On one hand, the high-impact everyday domestic territory is cited at kbb Birmingham (March 1–4): kitchen and bathroom as laboratories of surfaces, fittings, lighting and storage solutions where technical detail is design.
On the other hand, the building sector accelerates its debate at REBUILD (March 24–26, IFEMA Madrid), the major forum for industrialisation, off-site construction and applied digitalisation: processes, systems, scalability. It is the place where conversation stops being a trend and becomes a methodology.
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Innovation is also a tool (and a process)
Also in March, the industrial muscle of wood becomes visible with HOLZ-HANDWERK (March 24–27, Nuremberg): tools, equipment and supplies. It is a fair that reminds us of something essential: innovation is not always a new aesthetic; sometimes it is a process improvement that ends up elevating the final result.
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April: Specification cured and the great week of desire
April opens the chapter of curated specifications and the design scene. ARCHITECT@WORK Munich (April 15–16) offers a boutique format focused on selected innovation: perfect for spotting concrete solutions without getting lost in the noise. And, a few days later, Fuorisalone (April 20–26, Milan) sets the cultural bar once again: installations, showrooms, prototypes and conversations where it is decided which materials and atmospheres will colonise projects in the coming months. The closing event is the ARCHITECT@WORK Luxembourg edition (April 28–29), another agile stop to update specification, contact and agenda.
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A question to plan for (and not just attend)
If your studio works at the intersection of architecture and interior design, this semester invites you to plan with a simple question: what do you need to bring back to the project -metrics, processes or sensory experience- to design with more coherence?
