A celebration of the work of British arch itect John Pawson from the early 1980s to the present day, this exhibition includes a selection of landmark commissions including the Sackler Crossing at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the new Cistercian Monastery of Our Lady of Novy Dvur in the Czech Republic and Calvin Klein’s flagship store in New York. The process of design and construction will be shown through photography, film, sketches, study models, prototypes and interviews, with the core of the show a site-specific, full-sized space designed by Pawson that aims to offer the visitor a ‘direct and immersive experience’ of the architect’s craft.

This project re-imagines the ancient phenomenon of the sukkah, whose religious function is to commemorate the temporary structures that the Israelites dwelled in during their exodus from Egypt and provide a ‘home’ during the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Yet it is also about ‘universal ideas of transience and permanence as expressed in architecture; ‘a means of ceremonially practicing homelessness.’ There are various constraints – is a deceased elephant kosher? – to its construction, and for Sukkah City entries were asked to develop new methods of material practice and propose radical ideas. With a jury that includes Ron Arad, 12 finalists will be selected to construct a ‘visionary village’ of sukkahs.

Touched is the International 10 exhibition of this year’s Liverpool Biennial and across the city newly commissioned artworks aspire to affect the viewer in a total context (mind, body and place: relatedness in space and time), asking ‘Can art touch a city?’ Among the projects is a new film by Norwegian artist Lars Laumann at the Open Eye Gallery and curated by Patrick Henry; contributions by Daniel Bozhkov and Carol Rama at Bluecoat in a selection by Sara Jayne Parsons; and the work of Sachiko Abe and Antti Laitinen at A Foundation, where curator Mark Waugh explores the emotional impact of art.

It’s 25th anniversary time for Verona’s interiors fair, which along with its mix of traditional & avant-garde, classic & contemporary, prides itself on the quality of its 700 exhibitors in 18 categories fields from kitchens & bathrooms to lighting, furniture, textiles and flooring. Abitare also presents a rich selection of cultural exhibitions, with this year’s edition featuring Living Utopia curated by Alessandro Mendini. Uncovering the emotional story of 100 Italian objects of different shapes and origin, the circuit reflects not only on the great transformations of the last two decades or so, but invites the viewer to rethink our relationship with the environment, and the objects that surround us.

Across the Belgian capital more than 100 locations will host nearly 80 events that encompass design in the form of furniture, objects, industrial products, graphics and architecture. Featuring both national & international talent, the likes of Michele de Lucchi, Harri Koskinen, Ineke Hans and Kiki Van Eijk take part in exhibitions, conferences, debates, open studios, film screenings and city tours. Other highlights include FIGHTING THE BOX, where 20 Belgian designers (Bram Boo, Marina Bautier, Alain Berteau, Benoît Deneufbourg, Nathalie Dewez, Nedda El-Asmar, Stefan Schöning, Diane Steverlynck, Danny Venlet and Sylvain Willenz, ao) will reveal the stories & processes behind their product work.

With both regional and international exhibitors, the second edition of this trade fair of Nordic design aims to break from the traditional concepts of such events and highlight new approaches to design form, design thinking and the creative process. The event will also coincide with the launch of the new BC Design Centre, formerly known as Scandinavian Trade Mart, which will provide a permanent focus for design in the area with showrooms, a knowledge centre, material library, workshops, seminars and exhibition spaces. 

LaN (Live Architecture Network) directors Monika Wittig and Luis Fraguada direct a week-long seminar on associative design and production. Investigating several modes for interacting with real time, real life data using a combination of existing data libraries and prefabricated sensory nodes, the workshop will use the 22@ Innovation District in Barcelona as a data source as well as a test bed for spatial configurations generated from the recorded data. Participants will engage these topics through Grasshopper, a generative modelling tool for McNeel’s Rhinoceros.  The workshop will work with the Fab Lab BCN for prototyping and fabrication.

BARC aims to simulate an evolution of urban development ideas to produce a long-term sustainable vision for a city in China. Ten renowned architecture offices, five from The Netherlands and five from China, will design an urban expansion of 100,000 people in relay. Each team strategically builds on top of the previous team's proposal, until a city of one million is built from scratch; not top-down but through a process of organic emergence. Together the ten plans form a growth scenario from 2010 to 2040 for the Chinese ‘eco-city’ of Caofeidian, and in this exhibition will be brought together in a sculptural installation. The event is part of Adaptation: Designing The Future City, a month-long series of events at the Dutch Cultural Centre that sees Dutch & Chinese artists, architects and digital media makers demonstrating how media, art and technology can contribute to the design of the future city.

An exploration of the fundamental role of drawing in the work of Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), one of the most important avant-garde composers of the late 20th century. Originally trained as an engineer in his native Greece, he also worked as an architect – notably in Le Corbusier’s atelier, where he contributed to the designs of several iconic buildings, including La Tourette and the Philips Pavilion. Meticulously hand-rendered scores and graphic studies expressing spatial and sonic understandings and qualities are on view, and the exhibition is thematically organised into musical compositions in one space and ‘polytopes’ or musically-conceived environments, in another.

A yearly international arts festival in Watou, a culturally-minded village in the Westhoek region of Belgium (just ask fans of Gregorian music). Locations such as barns and stables serve as creative scenery for stories from young and well-known curators (Jan Van Woensel, Christophe De Jaeger, Joost Declercq) and the Dutch author Oscar Van den Bogaard, with Willy Tibergien, director of the Poëziecentrum in Ghent selecting a whole range of poetry. Experimental works, both indoors and out, the Festival mixes up the generations and artistic disciplines and features Celine Butaye, Masashi Echigo, Miks Mitrevics and Jan Op de Beeck, ao.