The global architecture and design nonprofit The World Around returns to New York city with the sixth edition of its annual summit, taking place for the first time at The Museum of Modern Art and organized with the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment.
Tickets for the World Around Summit 2025 are “pay what you wish” and open to all. Seats in the theater are limited and allocated to in-person ticket holders on a first-come, first-served basis.
Since its 2020 debut at New York’s Times Center, the World Around Summit has held a unique space for the architecture and design world’s most critical conversations, with a focus on social and environmental justice. This year, the daylong program will present talks and conversations from voices at the forefront of “Architecture’s Now, Near, and Next,” spotlighting some of the most impactful projects and innovative, actionable ideas from the past year across the fields of architecture, design, and the environment. The program is curated by Beatrice Galilee, founder and executive director of The World Around, and Carson Chan, director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute at MoMA. Culminating the events of Earth Week 2025, the program includes the World Around Young Climate Prize award ceremony and presentations from the four trailblazing award-winners.
Confirmed speakers include:
Douglas Cardinal, of Douglas Cardinal Architects, will reflect on a lifetime at the cutting edge of practice. The Indigenous Canadian master-builder will offer lessons from nature held in his distinctive organic architecture.
Alejandra Castrodad-Rodríguez Designer, ilumiNACIÓN—The designer of the National Design Award-winning ilumiNACIÓN platform will explain how the project harnesses collaborative design methodologies to put power in the hands of Puerto Rico’s most climate-vulnerable communities.
Chatpong Chuenrudeemol, of CHAT Architects, is a Bangkok-based architect. He will present his practice’s Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion, which has “bastardized” the traditional vernacular of a small coastal village in Thailand to revive its local trade.
Chris Cornelius represents studio:indigenous. Through a space of kinship for Indigenous creatives, scholars, and activists at the Forge Project in Taghkanic, New York, the studio founder will explain how his practice is building a reciprocal relationship between architecture and the land on which it rests.
Elizabeth Diller, Diller Scofidio + Renfro—The eminent American architect will present her firm’s design for the Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Qatar, conceived by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser as the first purpose-built contemporary women’s mosque in the Muslim world.
Iñaki Echeverría, Parque Ecológico Lago de Texcoco—The architect and director of the large-scale restoration of Mexico’s Texcoco Basin will explain how the initiative is reclaiming over 35,000 acres of land once designated for a new airport to create critical ecological and social infrastructures.
Béatrice Grenier represents Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. The Fondation Cartier’s director of strategic projects & international programs will offer first-time insight into Jean Nouvel’s design for the cultural institution’s new home in central Paris, ahead of its official opening this fall.
Anne Holtrop, of Studio Anne Holtrop, is a renowned Bahrain-based architect. Holtrop will present on how he rendered tradition afresh in his most recent addition to Muharraq’s UNESCO-listed Pearling Path, the Siyadi Pearl Museum.
Jung Youngsun, Korea’s first licensed woman landscape architect, will discuss how she transformed the discipline into a delicate scientific art over an exceptional 50-year career.
Josh Kline is a celebrated New York–based artist. Kline will speak about how his Climate Change exhibition opens a door to the calamitous future we risk without significant action.
Daryan Knoblauch, of Daryan Knoblauch Studio, will present his most recent public projects. The innovator will speak about his disruptive approach to architecture and urban planning as mediums for research, experimentation, and communication.
Alina Kolar, of HouseEurope!, is an initiator of the EU-wide citizens movement. Kolar will discuss their campaign to put a halt to demolition and transform the bloc’s building stock.
Nzinga B. Mboup, of Worofila, will speak about her critical research into Senegal’s architectural heritage. The Dakar-based architect will discuss how she’s revisiting the nation’s canon toward an architecture for the climate change era.
Salima Naji represents atelier Salima Naji. The acclaimed architect-anthropologist will present her ongoing projects, which are redefining building conservation in Southern Morocco.
Vyjayanthi Rao and Kush Badhwar, anthropologist and artist, respectively, are the directors of the Berlinale-selected Beneath the Placid Lake film-based installation. They will present a meditation on the aftermath of displacement and environmental loss that followed the construction of a megadam in Southern India.
Mauricio Rocha, of Taller de Arquitectura, will present a comprehensive urban landscape project in Villahermosa, Mexico. The architect will discuss how he’s building urban climate resilience to restore the connection between a city and its river.
Young Climate Prize Winners
Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali (age 23, Algeria)
Blossom Eromosele (age 23, Nigeria)
Amara Nwuneli (age 17, Nigeria)
Dayana Blanco Quiroga (25, Bolivia)
More information on the summit can be found on The World Around’s website.
Since 2023, The World Around is supported by its Global Cultural Partner the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, which is dedicated to promoting and raising public awareness of contemporary art.
This event was made possible through a generous gift from Emilio Ambasz. The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment is a platform for fostering dialogue, promoting conversation, and facilitating research about the relationship between the built and natural environment, with the aim of making the interaction between architecture and ecology visible and accessible to the wider public while highlighting the urgent need for an ecological recalibration.