DesignBlok 2026, the 28th edition of the Prague design festival, runs from 7 to 11 October 2026 across some of the city’s most striking venues. This year’s theme is Light, read as a symbol of knowledge, truth, hope and life. More than 300 designers, studios, brands and guests from the Czech Republic and abroad take part, while the programme moves between the National Gallery Prague’s Trade Fair Palace, Prague Castle, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Industrial Palace, which reopens to the public with the festival after four years of work.

DesignBlok 2026, Prague, 7-11, October, 2026

Professionals’ Day: 6 October, with the first day of DesignBlok Talks (the conference continues on 7 October)
Size: six main venues: Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague; Riding Hall and Chapel of the Holy Cross at Prague Castle; Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague; UMPRUM Technology Centre in Mikulandská; Central Hall of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha
Around 50,000 visitors 
Paid admission, one ticket for all venues
More than 50 showrooms, galleries, shops and other venues
More info on the website designblok.cz

Light shows up in many forms: as a practical tool, a technology, a building block of architecture and design, and an idea. Through exhibitions, installations, talks and presentations, DesignBlok looks at how light shapes the way people see, feel and live, and at what design can do for society.

Marcel Wanders, Guest of Honour at DesignBlok 2026

Dutch designer Marcel Wanders is this year’s main guest. On Thursday 8 October he will pick up the DesignBlok Award for Outstanding Contribution to Global Design in the historic Central Hall of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha.

Since the 1990s, Wanders has blurred the lines between craft and industry, decoration and structure, tradition and technology, and brought emotion and imagination back to the centre of design. His Knotted Chair of 1996 became the symbol of this approach. The Skygarden light for Flos, his work for Moooi, the brand he co-founded 25 years ago, and the layered interiors of the Mondrian Doha hotel show how widely his practice reaches across products, lighting and interiors.

Lee Broom’s BEACON Lights Up Jan Palach Square

British designer Lee Broom brings BEACON to Prague, a monumental light installation made with Czech lighting brand Brokis. After its launch in London and a stop at Milan Design Week, the piece reaches Czech audiences for the first time, lighting up Jan Palach Square in front of the Rudolfinum.

DesignBlok Talks: Two Days on the Future of Design, Architecture and Living

The second edition of DesignBlok Talks grows to two days, on 6 and 7 October, and moves into the Industrial Palace. More than 40 architects, designers and experts will take the stage across three strands: Future of Design, Future of Architecture and Future of Living. The programme is put together with the British platform Dezeen.

The international line-up includes Claudio Silvestrin, Sebastian Herkner, Laurids Gallée, Daniel Rybakken, Christophe Delcourt, Alberto Perazza, Hong Kong designer Stanley Wong and Pascale Mussard Siegrist. The Czech scene is represented by studio Dechem, Jakub Berdych Karpelis, Maxim Velčovský, Kateřina Handlová, Jan Plecháč, Lucie Koldová, Václav Mlynář and Eva Eisler.

The Trade Fair Palace, Heart of the Festival

After three years, DesignBlok goes back to the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague, which once again becomes the core of the festival. Visitors will find more than 250 exhibitions by designers, brands, schools and young talents, along with cafés, rest areas and large curated projects.

In the Small Hall, supported by KKCG Real Estate Group, Maxim Velčovský sets up Veranda, an interactive installation about light, movement and getting together. On the fifth floor, DesignBlok Selects picks out 28 objects and new launches from Czech and international design, among them a limited-edition gold Panton Chair by Vitra and the Axis collection by Laurids Gallée for Moser.

The theme also comes through in the mix of exhibitors, with leading Czech glass and lighting companies side by side with international lighting, furniture and interior brands. Česká spořitelna and Visa team up with designer Daniel Pošta on an interactive light installation, Škoda Auto shows two fully electric models, the Epiq and the Peaq, and ČEZ uses virtual reality to take visitors inside Czech power plants. The Karel Komárek Family Foundation presents a play installation for preschool children, designed by students of Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

The Industrial Palace Reopens with DesignBlok

DesignBlok is the first major event to open the historic Central Hall of the Industrial Palace after its four-year restoration. The hall will host DesignBlok Talks, a live design edition of the popular Czech quiz show AZ-kvíz, the official reopening together with the DesignBlok Awards 2026, and Saturday’s fashion shows with the Diploma Selection finalists. Guided tours of the palace are organised with Výstaviště Praha, and a Škoda Auto children’s zone sets up outside as part of DesignBlok for Kids.

Prague Castle: Václav Havel’s Office and Eva Eisler’s Circle of Silence

For the fourth time, Prague Castle is one of the main venues. The Riding Hall hosts Design for Václav Havel, marking 90 years since the birth of the first Czech president after the Velvet Revolution. At its centre is Havel’s original presidential office, back at the Castle after 24 years on loan from Mr and Mrs Kolek. The show is organised by DesignBlok and Prague Castle and curated by Andrea Běhounková and Jana Zielinski.

The Riding Hall also hosts the fourth edition of High Craft, under the patronage of Vogue CS. More than twenty Czech designers and brands rework traditional crafts through new technologies and a careful approach to the environment. Exhibitors include ARTGLASS, now under the artistic direction of Jakub Berdych Karpelis, Christmas ornaments by Rautis, glass by DECHEM and Hana Hillerová, and sculptures in glass, bronze and ceramics by Janja Prokić.

For the first time, the deconsecrated Chapel of the Holy Cross in the Castle’s Second Courtyard opens to festival visitors. Here Eva Eisler presents Circle of Silence/Kruh ticha, an installation that shifts attention away from human making and towards nature, time and presence. Light is not the subject but the medium that lets visitors take in the space and its silence, and slow down.

Retro Lamps at the Museum of Decorative Arts

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague hosts part of Openstudio and the exhibition Retro Lamps: Forgotten Stories of Czechoslovak Design. The show looks at mass-produced table, floor and pendant lamps made in Czechoslovakia between the 1950s and the 1980s, and brings back the names of designers often hidden behind the factories that produced their work. It is developed with the Paris gallery Initio Arts & Design and curated by Eva Slunečková. In the museum garden, designer Bodo Sperlein stages an intervention of his own.

Openstudio and Superstudio

Openstudio, split between the Trade Fair Palace and the museum, focuses on independent projects and smaller brands: PÁR and Blueberries, a joint collection by Kahotski Eyewear and Petra Ptáčková, the jewellery project Love is Bling, embroidery by BRO., SKOBA with Jiří Krejčiřík, and Tititi, which also celebrates the 100th birthday of the Czech puppet Hurvínek. FLÖTTOTO, Kultivar and the City of Znojmo join DesignBlok for the first time.

Superstudio, at the Trade Fair Palace, gathers the large brand installations. Highlights include Lasvit with Rizzoli New York, the relaunched glassworks Jílek 1905, a working What a Hut sauna outside the building, door handles and hooks by Jiří Pelcl for M&T, furniture by Master & Master with its first light, a table lamp by Tomáš Král, a new armchair by Lucie Koldová for LD Seating, handwoven Slovak rugs by Felmera, and STOPKA with Italian brand Gallotti&Radice.

DesignBlok Across Prague

More than 50 locations across the city join the festival map, from showrooms and pop-up stores to galleries, museums and art schools. Among them are STOPKA, DEDON Praha, Minotti Praha and the new Rückl Flagship Store. In Holešovice, the Konsepti showroom presents new designs by Christophe Delcourt for Molteni&C alongside Magis, while the nearby Bulb showroom shows icons by Marcel Wanders and Moooi. Křehký brings its Křehký Collectibles to Almanac X Alcron Prague.

DesignBlok Awards, Young Talent and Charity

The DesignBlok Awards 2026 are handed out at the DesignBlok Gala on 8 October. The international jury is chaired by Max Fraser, Editor-in-Chief of Dezeen. The Impact Award, for a project with a strong environmental or social contribution, comes with CZK 100,000 from Allwyn.

Diploma Selection, run with EUNIC Cluster Prague, reaches its 12th edition. Fifteen product design finalists show their work at the Trade Fair Palace, while fashion finalists walk the runway at the Industrial Palace on Saturday 10 October, when the winners are announced. School Today brings together 19 schools and studios from Central Europe, with Budapest’s Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design taking part for the first time, and expands to the UMPRUM Technology Centre in Mikulandská. The DesignBlok Talent Cards, backed by Česká spořitelna and Visa, help young designers take their first professional steps.

The festival’s main non-profit partner is the AutTalk Foundation, which supports families of children on the autism spectrum. MONUMENT Office designs an installation for the foundation, and DesignBlok donates CZK 100,000 from ticket sales. Porigami, with a special edition, and Sue Ryder also take part.

A Programme for the Whole Family

The DesignBlok Stage in the Grand Hall of the Trade Fair Palace hosts talks and meetings with designers throughout the festival, while the ATLAS space offers workshops and films. Families can count on activities by Designéři dětem and Meander, and on a festival decathlon quiz with book prizes from Euromedia. There is also a run with the Design(Blok) Lovers community, ending at the What a Hut sauna, and evening parties at Kolektor café curated by Cirque.Menu.

This is also the first edition under the festival’s new visual identity by Permanent Office, with a campaign shot by photographer Viktorie Macánová and a new website built with Trau and Offforms to make the large programme easier to find one’s way around.

Why visit

DesignBlok 2026 opens up Prague’s landmark venues, from Prague Castle to the newly restored Industrial Palace, to the best of contemporary design. With Marcel Wanders, Lee Broom and more than 300 Czech and international names in one week, it is the design event to follow in Central Europe this autumn.

DesignBlok 2026, Prague, 7-11, October, 2026

Professionals’ Day: 6 October, with the first day of DesignBlok Talks (the conference continues on 7 October)
Size: six main venues: Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague; Riding Hall and Chapel of the Holy Cross at Prague Castle; Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague; UMPRUM Technology Centre in Mikulandská; Central Hall of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha
Around 50,000 visitors
Paid admission, one ticket for all venues
More than 50 showrooms, galleries, shops and other venues
More info on the website designblok.cz

Opening hours: Daily October 7-10, h. 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM / Sunday 11 October h. 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Opening hours may vary for individual venues, showrooms and shops across the city, so it is best to check each one on the festival map before