7–12 SEPTEMBER 2026 · ASK NAIROBI SHOWGROUND, JAMHURI PARK
Shifting the Center: From Fragility to Resilience — Reclaiming Africa’s Architecture and Future
The Nairobi Biennale of Architecture & Art 2026 brings together architecture, art, design, urbanism, heritage, industry and ideas to explore Africa’s built environment and future.
Through curated exhibitions, conversations, urban experiences, heritage, art and public programming, the Biennale creates a space for ideas to be seen, experienced and debated.
THE THEME
SHIFTING THE CENTER: FROM FRAGILITY TO RESILIENCE
Reclaiming Africa’s Architecture and Future
For too long, Africa has been positioned as a margin to someone else’s centre; a recipient of imported models, a site of extraction, a periphery on which the architecture of others is tested. This Biennale takes the opposite position.
READ THE FULL THEME →EXPERIENCE
Ideas, projects and practices shaping the built environment.
Powerful artistic expressions responding to place, identity and future.
Architecture, memory and cultural histories.
Thought leadership, dialogue and debate.
Curated tours and experiences across Nairobi.
Activities that bring architecture, art and the city to wider audiences.
Connections across professions, sectors and borders.
CURATORIAL STATEMENTS
WHY NAIROBI
Nairobi provides a living context in which questions of urban growth, resilience, heritage, climate, mobility, informality, technology and identity are actively being negotiated. The city itself becomes part of the Biennale experience.
EXPERIENCE NAIROBI
The live city is part of the Biennale. Discover Nairobi through curated tours, exhibitions, heritage experiences and urban encounters.
