IDW is the annual International Design Workshop week for master students of the Faculty of Design Sciences of the University of Antwerp (architecture, interior architecture, product development, heritage studies, urbanism and spatial planning), as well as for master students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts Antwerp.
BE+LONGING
In a world marked by constant change, migration, fragmentation, and hyper-connectivity, the question of where and how we belong has become more urgent than ever. Belonging is about more than identity—it is about relationships, rituals, language, care, and the spaces we inhabit, claim, and share.
BE+LONGING invites us to explore the complex relationship between being and longing—to ask not only where we belong, but what we long for. To belong is to feel seen, rooted, included. But it also requires us to reckon with systems of exclusion, histories of displacement, and the deep human desire for connection. IDW 2026 encourages designers to see longing not as a lack, but as a generative force. To treat belonging not as a static state, but as an ongoing process—a becoming. Let’s design spaces, futures, and imaginaries where everyone can belong!
CRITICAL DESIGN ATTITUDE
The IDW week aims to explore BE+LONGING using the power of the critical design attitude. Instead of the traditional affirmative design approach (problem-solving and solution-focused), the aim of the IDW week is to focus on ‘problem-finding’. This critical design attitude leads to a deeper understanding of all factors that influence a design and encourages to reflect on the impact of a solution or intervention. It triggers the exploration of alternative and out-of-the-box scenarios thus increase the likelihood of more (socially) sustainable and desirable futures becoming reality [1].
The workshop week is open to radical pedagogical experiences, which open the eyes, broaden thinking and foster new encounters. It stimulates international and interdisciplinary exchange and offers an informal platform for discussing design education and its agency.
REFERENCES
[1] Vaes, K., Torkildsby, A.B. and De Boeck, M. (2022) ‘Design with a critical lens: teaching students how to find, rather than solve, design challenges using interdisciplinary workshops’, in Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Disrupt, Innovate, Regenerate and Transform, E and PDE 2022. The Design Society. Available at: https://doi.org/10.35199/epde.2022.2