Architecture Matters 2026
How to connect to an uncertain future?
10 years! Architecture Matters celebrates its first decade in 2026. More than ever, we are convinced that cities can only be shaped collectively – by thinking all spheres together: architecture, development, clients, finance, city government, and politics. We may be less idealistic than when we began, yet we still trust in dialogue’s ability to generate insight – not as a token gesture, but grounded in genuine mutual interest. In returns measured not only in financial gain, but in public value – and in the enduring strength of good design.
Architecture Matters 2026 – How do we connect to an uncertain future? Anyone travelling east from Germany senses it at once: resilience in European cities has acquired a new increasingly geopolitical dimension. How do we protect our cities from hostile military attacks? How do we defend them if the situation becomes critical? Do we know where they are particularly vulnerable – in their “hardware”, or perhaps in their “software”? Alongside the challenges of climate change, demographic shifts, and AI, Europe is now experiencing a new form of uncertainty: a fragile geopolitical order, a world reorganizing itself.
How much time do we have left? The real-estate sector is famously slow to translate widely accepted insights – how to build faster, more economically, and more simply – into structural change. How do we accelerate decision-making without sliding into authoritarian tendencies or repeatedly starting from zero? How can we build as resource-efficiently as possible, even in a strained economic environment? How are investment decisions made in times of structural uncertainty, and what role does political stability play? How will large-scale investments in weapons and defence influence the way we plan our cities? And where is the productive moment that enables us to shape the future with – or despite – uncertainty, rather than being overtaken by it?
How do we connect to an uncertain future? The conference brings together keynote perspectives from New York, Milan, Berlin, and Munich – each offering clear, resonant examples of this productive moment. The Focus Sessions then move into concrete terrain: Focus Finance, AI, Phase Zero, Light Industrial, Offices of the Future, and a Female Focus for greater diversity and resilience in urban development.
Architecture Matters
15–16 April 2026
House of Communication, Munich
Speaker
Key Speaker
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York
Elizabeth Diller is a founding partner of the internationally renowned studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), which merges architecture, urbanism, art, and media into new ways of thinking about space. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of our time. Alongside partner Ricardo Scofidio, Diller’s cross-genre work has been distinguished with TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” list and the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture. She has also received the Wolf Prize in Architecture.
Her work has left a lasting mark on New York City: she was responsible for the design of the High Line Park, The Shed, and the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art. Diller is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives and Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University.
photo: Geordie Wood, Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Senseable City Lab, MIT, Cambridge; Carlo Ratti Associati, Turin–New York
Carlo Ratti has a deep passion for cities and the built environment. A practicing architect, he teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs the Senseable City Lab. He graduated in engineering from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later earned his MPhil and PhD in architecture at the University of Cambridge, UK. Carlo holds several patents and has co-authored over 250 publications. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum in Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, GAFTA in San Francisco, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In 2025, he curated the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, titled “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective”. Working at the intersection of research, design, and entrepreneurship, he aims to provoke public debate about urban life and to explore new ways in which technology, architecture, and society can interact.
photo: Carlo Ratti Associati
Architectural Academic, Curator, Editor, Author, Madrid
Martha Thorne is an American architectural academic, curator, editor, and author. She served as the Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 15 years, and was the dean of the Architecture School at IE University in Madrid. She is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the professional association of architects in Madrid.
Her main interests centre on the contemporary city and how architecture, design, and urbanism can make the highest-quality environments and contribute to sustainability and resilience; and how education can evolve in content and pedagogy to be more relevant for today’s challenges.
photo: Carlos de Lucas
State Minister for Housing, Building and Transport, Munich
Christian Bernreiter has served as Bavarian State Minister for Housing, Construction and Transport since 2022. Prior to that, he shaped the District of Deggendorf for 20 years as its District Administrator and also served as President of the Bavarian District Association. An engineer and entrepreneur by training, he is committed to future-oriented mobility, affordable housing, and a sustainable building culture in Bavaria.
photo: Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Building and Transport
Speaker
Curator, Editor and Advisor
David Basulto is the founder of ArchDaily, the world’s most visited architecture website, acquired by the NZZ Mediengruppe in 2020. Since 2025 David works as an independent curator, editor and advisor to different global institutions and technology startups. He is a member of the Master Jury of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture, the Endeavor Foundation in New York, and the Academic Council of the TEC de Monterrey in Mexico. He was curator of the Nordic Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. David is one of Chile’s 100 Young Leaders and received the Chilean National Innovation Award for ArchDaily.
photo: Jose Salto
Die Stadtmacherin, Berlin–Zurich
Regula Lüscher is an architect and urban planner. From 2007 to 2021, she shaped Berlin’s urban development as Senate Building Director and State Secretary, overseeing 900 employees and representing Berlin at the federal level. Before this, she managed urban planning and architectural projects in Zurich, serving as Deputy Director of the Office for Urban Development.
Since 2022, Lüscher has been Managing Director of “Die Stadtmacherin” (The City Maker), where she supports complex urban development and architectural projects, facilitates planning processes, and advises leaders. She has presided over numerous award juries and is an honorary professor at Berlin University of the Arts. Her expertise spans urban planning, participation, sustainability and communication.
photo: Anke Illing
Gallery EIGEN + ART, Berlin–Leipzig
Gerd Harry “Judy” Lybke has been shaping Germany’s contemporary art scene for more than four decades. In 1983, he founded the gallery EIGEN + ART in Leipzig, creating an independent space for artistic experimentation even during the GDR era. After 1989, he expanded the gallery into an internationally connected platform with remarkable determination.
He has supported many now-renowned artists – including Neo Rauch, Carsten Nicolai, and Olaf Nicolai – from the very beginning of their careers. With locations in Leipzig, Berlin, and the EIGEN + ART Lab, Lybke continues to foster new artistic perspectives and strengthen exchange between local scenes and global art discourses.
photo: Enrico Meyer
City of Munich
Planning Director, City of Munich
Prof. Dr. (University of Florence) Elisabeth Merk, an architect, has served as Munich’s City Planning Director since 2007. After working as a freelance architect and completing advanced studies in Florence, she was responsible for urban design, urban monument preservation, and special projects in Munich and Regensburg from 1995 to 2000. From 2000 to 2005, she headed the urban planning office in Halle/Saale. Merk held a professorship at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HfT) from 2005 to 2007 and has been an honorary professor there since 2009. She was also appointed honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2020.
Merk is a member of the Building and Planning Committee of the Bavarian Association of Cities and Towns, the UNESCO network Conservation of Modern Architecture and Integrated Territorial Urban Conservation, the Board of Directors for National Urban Development Policy, the Advisory Board of the Federal Foundation for Building Culture, and the Advisory Board of the German Werkbund.
photo: Ilona Stelzl
Chris Middleton is a founding partner and managing director of the Berlin-based architecture studio Kinzo. He studied at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University of Berlin before working for architecture offices in Berlin and New York.
In 2005, he founded Kinzo together with Karim El-Ishmawi and Martin Jacobs. Influenced by Berlin’s nightlife and club culture, they focused from the outset on unlocking the hidden potential of spaces and thinking across disciplines. Middleton has led projects such as the headquarters for SoundCloud and Zalando in Berlin, as well as major campus structures for Erste Bank in Vienna and the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
photo: Sebastian Dörken
Co-Managing Director and Artistic Director Experimental Foundation
Chrissie Muhr is an architect, researcher, and curator based in Basel. She is Co-Managing Director and Artistic Director of the Experimental Foundation in Berlin, which promotes experimental, practice-based approaches to sustainable architecture. Most recently, she curated the exhibition program “28 x Liveable City – A City Dialogue with Basel” between Denmark and Switzerland. In 2025, she will be part of the Danish Pavilion “Build of Site” by Pihlmann Architects at the Venice Architecture Biennale and serves as editor of the catalogue “Making Matter”. Previously, she curated the exhibition and publication “Reset Materials” at Copenhagen Contemporary (2023) and was Artistic Director of the first Architecture Week Basel in 2022 as well as the inaugural Reuse Basel Pavilion.
Muhr works transdisciplinarily as an advisor and teaches internationally, including at ETH Zurich, HGK Basel, EPFL Lausanne, HEAD Genève, Aarhus School of Architecture, TU Vienna, TU Munich, the AA School in London, and Harvard GSD. In 2021, she founded the AA Visiting School Post Carbon Material Practices, and in 2025 she initiated the Multispecies Spaces Lab at HGK Basel.
photo: Hampus Berndtson
Programme 2026
Opening Reception | 10 Years of Architecture Matters
Coffee & Registration
Mainstage Keynotes & Discussion
Networking & Coffee Break
Mainstage Keynotes & Discussion
Networking Lunch
Focus Session
Focus Session
The Focus Session provides thought-provoking inputs and intimate group discussions. Each session offers a space to explore topics in-depth and exchange ideas directly: What is your vision for future construction? What do you expect or want from others in the industry?
Phase Zero
Regenerative Future Practices – in cooperation with Experimental Foundation
Programme and moderation: Chrissie Muhr, Experimental Foundation
This focus session positions Phase Zero as the critical leverage point in the transition to regenerative building practices. It synthesizes insights from practitioners navigating restrictive legal frameworks, slow certification processes, and uneven market conditions, while implementing regenerative, circular, bio-based, and low-tech design strategies and processes.
Practitioners share first-hand experience with the challenges of sustainable building – legal, cultural, and material – and identify the scope, tools, and structures needed to move experimental projects towards a new normal. Together, we outline a new practice ecosystem in which architecture, craftsmanship, research, and policy collaborate to translate critical alternatives into the built environment.
This session will be held in English.
Focus Finance
The End of Monoculture
Light Industrial
Light Industrial. The Return of production
New geopolitical realities and massive investments in security technologies are bringing production, high-tech industries, and research back into cities. They are seeking sites close to urban centres – with high requirements for safety and adaptability. What does this mean for development, planning, permits – and for the urban fabric?
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Female Focus
Female Focus. Diversity and resilience in urban planning
Programme and moderation: Regula Lüscher, Die Stadtmacherin
Urban development faces a future shaped by uncertainty, social friction, and the need for deep structural change. Diversity and resilience are becoming central success factors. This workshop examines the particular role of women in architecture, real-estate development, and public planning. It shows why their perspectives are essential for shaping resilient processes – and which strategies help women succeed when conditions become volatile.
The workshop brings together the leadership experience of Regula Lüscher with perspectives from a younger generation. This combination opens a dialogue-based, cross-generational view at career paths, structural barriers, leadership cultures, and the skills that build
Partner
Platin Partner
Lead Partner
Premium Partner
Focus Partner
