Taking place from 21–24 October 206 at the V&A Waterfront, the event will bring together designers, educators, students, entrepreneurs, cultural practitioners, and community builders from across Africa and beyond to explore this year’s theme: How do we design to thrive?
Driven by the Pan Afrikan Design Institute (Padi), Pan Afrikan Design Week has grown into a platform for conversations around design, innovation and social change.
The annual event launched in Johannesburg in 2020 and has since travelled to Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, creating opportunities for creative minds across the continent to share ideas and explore the role of design in addressing complex challenges.
The 2026 edition will mark the first time the event is hosted in Cape Town, with acclaimed designer and TED speaker Saki Mafundikwa among the confirmed speakers.
“We are extremely proud to bring Pan Afrikan Design Week to the Mother City,” says Suné Stassen, CEO of Open Design Afrika and programme director of the event.
“This gathering honours the resilience, ingenuity and creative intelligence of Afrika at a moment when the world faces unprecedented challenges, and when the continent has so much to offer in answering them.”
While design is often associated with visual aesthetics, Pan Afrikan Design Week aims to highlight its wider role in shaping communities, economies and everyday experiences.
The event will examine how design thinking can contribute to more sustainable solutions, stronger collaborations and new ways of approaching social challenges.
“A central idea behind the event is that humanity is the chief designer of the human-made world,” says Stassen.
“If today’s realities have been shaped over generations by human choices, systems and institutions, then logically they can be redesigned through better choices, deeper collaboration and more responsible action.”
The main three-day conference will take place from 21–23 October at Workshop17 in the V&A Waterfront’s Watershed, followed by a networking event and a community-based learning tour on 24 October.
The programme will combine keynote sessions, panel discussions, afternoon workshop labs, networking opportunities and community-linked learning experiences.
The first day will focus on Africa’s position in relation to itself and the wider world, creating space to reflect on identity, influence and opportunity.
The second day will explore how design and creative collaboration can create impact across different sectors and ecosystems, while the final day will focus on education and the role it plays in developing the next generation of confident future-builders.
Open Design Afrika will serve as the coordinating partner for Pan Afrikan Design Week 2026, while Uthando South Africa will join the programme as cultural and community partner.
Through a curated community-based learning tour, delegates will engage with Cape Town’s social-impact landscape and gain insight into the lived experiences that shape the city.
“This is not a conventional design conference,” says Stassen. “It’s a Pan-Afrikan convening that positions design at the centre of social change.”
She adds that design has always extended beyond aesthetics, functioning as a civic, cultural and economic force that can help shape stronger communities and encourage creative confidence.
Approximately 200 delegates are expected to attend in person each day, with selected livestream access available to registered online ticket holders.
Through Padi’s wider network, which spans members in more than 21 African countries and 57 tertiary art and design schools, the conversations are expected to continue beyond the Cape Town venue.
Pan Afrikan Design Week 2026 will provide a space for Africa’s designers, thinkers and innovators to consider how creativity can contribute to building more resilient and inclusive futures.
Tickets are available on Quicket.
