DESIGN WEEK LAGOS 2026
Africa’s Leading Annual Design Festival
Design Week Lagos brings together designers, architects, manufacturers, and creatives to explore how design shapes our cities, industries, and everyday life.
Status
DWL 2026 Edition
Location
National Theatre, Lagos
Date
October 2026
“A pan-African platform connecting creativity, industry, innovation, and culture across Lagos and beyond.”
About the Festival
A Pan-African Design Platform and Citywide Celebration
Design Week Lagos is a leading design platform dedicated to advancing design as a catalyst for innovation, industry, and cultural exchange across Africa.
Rooted in Nigeria and delivered across Lagos, the festival brings together designers, manufacturers, institutions, students, and the public to explore how design shapes our cities, industries, and everyday life.
Each year, Design Week Lagos transforms Lagos into a vibrant design ecosystem through exhibitions, trade showcases, talks, competitions, training programmes, and partner-led events taking place across the city.
Making a New Africa
Design Week Lagos 2026 is guided by the theme “Making a New Africa” — a reflection on design as a driver of transformation, identity, innovation, and economic opportunity.
As Africa’s creative industries continue to expand, the festival explores how design can move beyond expression to become a foundation for systems, infrastructure, production, and sustainable growth.
SUB THEME:
From Material to Market: Designing for Scale
As Africa’s creative industries continue to expand, the 2026 sub-theme focuses on the journey from idea to production addressing how African creativity can evolve into scalable systems, products, and commercially viable solutions.
Selected works presented during the festival will be developed through limited production pathways, demonstrating how creative ideas can transition from concept to manufacturable outcomes and market opportunities.
Featured Exhibitions
Flagship Events
Made by
Design Show
Nigeria’s premier interiors and furniture trade exhibition, showcasing leading brands and manufacturers.
A premium design marketplace connecting local and international brands through architecture, interiors, and technology.
Design & Innovation Exhibition
A curated platform presenting new ideas, experimental thinking, emerging talent, and future-focused design from Nigeria and across Africa.
A discovery platform for concepts, prototypes, material exploration, and the next generation of African designers.
A Connected Ecosystem
Design Week Lagos brings together programmes across exhibitions, trade, knowledge-sharing, competitions, and industry development.
DWL Talks
Thought-provoking conversations exploring design, culture, innovation, industry, and the future of African creativity.
DWL Students Competition
A national platform supporting the next generation of designers through experimentation.
Design Innovation Incubator Programme
Supporting designers as they transition from concepts into sustainable design businesses.
National Design Innovation Competition (NDIC)
A nationwide talent discovery platform engaging designers across all six geopolitical zones.
NDIC Training Programme
Structured learning and mentorship for emerging designers across Nigeria.
Workshops &
Masterclasses
Hands-on learning experiences delivered with local and international partners.
National Interior Design Summit
An industry-focused platform bringing together interior designers, manufacturers, brands, developers, and professionals to discuss innovation, standards, and collaboration.
Dialogue in Design & Development
Conversations shaping the future of design, innovation, and sustainable development.
Experience Lagos
A Citywide Celebration
During festival week, Design Week Lagos activates galleries, showrooms, studios, museums, and cultural institutions across Lagos, transforming the city into an open platform for design and exchange.
One Movement since 2017.
