National Design Debate 2026
SHAPING EUROPE
How can Europe redesign itself, from infrastructure to imagination?
We design with American software, train on global AI models, and communicate through platforms developed outside Europe. While Europe leads the way in regulating technology, an important question remains: are we also leading in shaping our own future?
On Friday October 23, designers, artists, thinkers, and technologists will gather for the National Design Debate 2026: Shaping Europe, live in the iconic Philips Hall of the Evoluon in Eindhoven. The event is organized by Next Nature and Waag Futurelab.
Can Europe develop its own design culture, one that offers a genuine alternative to both American Big Tech and China’s state-driven model?
Friday, October 23
16:00 - 18:00
The Design Debate on Shaping Europe, is a call to reflect on the role of design in Europe. Not only as an aesthetic discipline, but as a cultural and political force that helps shape our digital future. For the question is not only what we design, but also with which values, with which means, and for whom.
National Design Debate 2026 is a place for friction and imagination. For everyone who believes that design is more than solving, it is also questioning, provoking, and dreaming.
