P&D 2026
Imagine & reimagine
The 16th Brazilian Congress on Research and Development in Design (P&D Design 2026) will be held in Recife, a city that synthesizes the tensions and potential of contemporary design: between the local and the global, the popular and the technological, memory and innovation.
Common sense often views the future as an open field, full of possibilities. However, amidst a socio-environmental collapse and a geopolitical configuration that relativizes scientific knowledge and the urgency of new paths for humanity, the idea of the future seems to narrow. If fictional imagination once presented dystopian visions of a post-apocalyptic world, today we are experiencing a pre-apocalyptic present, in which environmental, social, political, and economic crises are intensifying at an accelerated pace.
Beyond the most resigned predictions, design must adopt a different perspective. In this view, the future is not a passive time to be awaited, but a project: a construct of ideas, actions, interventions, and practices capable of transforming reality, an anticipation in favor of desirable futures. More than waiting to see what will happen, it is necessary to redefine the world we want and make it exist. For design, the future must be a design act, a gesture of creation, imagination, and responsibility.
This transition—from the expected future to the future that is being built—begins with an essential question: how can design inspire, provoke, and promote significant transformations in the world? To do this, it is necessary to understand that time is neither linear nor singular: it is a tangle of intertwined ideas, flows, and narratives. Various forms of knowledge, until recently distanced from academic centers, conceive of the future as an ancestral unfolding—like a tree, where branches only rise because the roots are deep. Thinking about plural futures, therefore, implies recognizing the power of diversity and the exchange between different forms of knowledge, promoting a continuous dialogue between tradition, technology, and imagination.
With this spirit, the 16th Brazilian Congress of Research and Development in Design (P&D Design 2026) will be held in Recife, a city that synthesizes the tensions and potential of contemporary design: between the local and the global, the popular and the technological, memory and innovation. Just like the premises evoked by Manguebeat, with roots firmly planted in the mangrove swamp, but with a satellite dish on its head pointed towards the world. "I arrived with my universe and landed in your thoughts. I bring the lights of the streetlights in my eyes, rivers and bridges in my heart. Pernambuco beneath my feet and my mind in the immensity." (Chico Science & Nação Zumbi, 1996).
Recife is a fertile ground for thinking about design as a strategic and critical practice, capable of transcending the creation of brands, objects, or interfaces to project possible worlds, influence behaviors, and foster social transformations. Its creative and technological ecosystem, consolidated by Porto Digital and a vibrant network of universities, companies, and cultural initiatives, expresses the convergence between innovation, culture, and technology, constituting a true urban and digital laboratory.
The central theme – “Imagining & Reimagining” – proposes a broad forum to discuss, reflect on, share, and propose actions around design as a transformative practice. The congress will bring together researchers, professionals, and students to investigate the role of design in creating desirable, inclusive, and sustainable futures, articulating science, technology, and culture.
