Arts & Culture
The World Around Summit at MoMA closes Earth Month with hope and actionable ideas.
The annual survey of contemporary architecture offered takeaways for everyone invested in a sustainable future.
Left Photo: Chat Chuenrudeemol Right Photo: Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion
New York, NY — May 6, 2025
The World Around closed out Earth Month with the success of its sixth landmark summit, held for the first time at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The global gathering brought together a community of architects, artists, activists, creatives, and changemakers from 16 countries to explore the "now, near, and next" in architecture — and its powerful potential to address the most urgent global challenges of our time.
Curated by Beatrice Galilee, founder and executive director of The World Around, and Carson Chan, curator at the Emilio Ambasz Institute, the daylong summit was guided by three resonant themes: Restorers, Inheritors, and Transformers of the world around us. These set the stage for a series of hope-fueled and idea-rich talks, presentations, and conversations that spanned disciplines and global borders, and included several first looks at major new architectural projects.
New London Architect
Beatrice Galilee
Peter Rose
Carson Chan
Beatrice Galilee says of this year’s event: “The World Around’s global community is 35,000 members strong, and the underlying takeaway from every Summit is the profound goodness and resilience that drives creatives in every community. This year dissolved barriers and created intergenerational synergies between speakers aged 16 to 91 years old, with a focus on indigenous knowledge, the power of youth, and how the smallest project can inspire a global audience.”
Architecture at the Edge: Radical Designs Taking on Injustice, Pollution, and Power
From the backstreets of Bangkok to the heart of Qatar, visionary architects are tearing up the rulebook and reimagining the world—one rebellious structure at a time. Thai architect Chat Chuenrudeemol introduced the raw, defiant spirit of “Bangkok Bastard” architecture—a hybrid form born without lineage, yet rich in native wisdom and gritty urban resilience. His Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion is nothing short of revolutionary: crafted from bamboo and salvaged seatbelts, it not only shields local communities from illegal ‘oyster pirates’, but births a new, locally rooted hospitality industry in its place.
Winners of the Young Climate Prize - Left Photo: Blossom Eromosele
Right Photo: Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali
In Barcelona, Spanish architect Darien Knobloch revealed Free Air—a floating, 200-square-meter metallic marvel that doesn’t just sit in the smog, but devours it. Built entirely from rented, lightweight aluminum, the structure “snatches” nitrogen oxides from the atmosphere to clean urban air pollution.
Meanwhile, on the African continent, architects Nzinga Mboup of Senegal and Salima Naji of Morocco are leading a quiet but profound revolution. Their legacy projects, steeped in ancestral knowledge and craftsmanship, are a bold reclaiming of architecture as cultural resistance—honoring tradition while empowering local hands to build the future.
Left Photo: Forge Project Visualization by Eli Liebenow © studio:indigenous
Right Photo: Heewon by Jung Youngson, 2002. Photo: Yang Haenam
© Seo Ahn Landscaping
And in Doha, a seismic shift: Elizabeth Diller debuted the Al-Mujadilah Mosque, the first women-only mosque designed and funded entirely by women. This landmark project is not only a global first, but a powerful counterstroke to an industry still tiptoeing around regimes that restrict rights—proof that design can be both radical and deeply human.
Rallying Voices, Reshaping Futures: Grassroots Movements Rise to Demand Change
Elina Kolar, the visionary director behind Berlin’s HOUSEEUROPE!, took the stage with a bold call to arms—urging Europe to rethink its future by repurposing what already exists. Its mission: to halt the reckless destruction of land, ecosystems, and communities by championing the adaptive reuse of buildings. With fierce determination, she and her team are mobilizing one million citizens across at least seven EU countries to force the issue onto the political stage, turning public will into legislative power.
Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, Alejandra Castrejon of Resilient Power Puerto Rico (RPPR) stands as a symbol of fearless defiance. Battling systemic government corruption after Hurricane Maria, she leads a movement not just of resistance but of architectural transformation, placing democracy and resilience at its core. Her fight, waged without bloodshed, reflects a profound truth: real change is born when ordinary people refuse to be silenced.
Left Photo: HouseEurope! Assembly by Edgar Rodtmann © HouseEurope!
Right Photo: Heewon by Jung Youngson, 2002. Photo: Yang Haenam © Seo Ahn Landscaping
The Quiet Wisdom of Elders & the Bold Voices of the Young
Douglas Cardinal
Canadian Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal, now in his 90s, spoke with quiet power about identity and resilience. On hardship, he offered a profound truth: “There is only good—and a crooked good that needs to be straightened out.” Even pain, he said, teaches.
In an intimate filmed session, 85-year-old Korean landscape architect Jung Youngson opened her studio, revealing decades of sketches and a simple, urgent plea: “Each of us must know how to plant even a single blade of grass.”
Then came the Young Climate Prize winners—fearless, visionary, and loud. They challenged systems, reimagined futures, and presented bold, community-powered solutions that demand change now.
Linda Brand, President of the MillerKnoll Foundation and steadfast supporter of the Young Climate Prize says: “The entire World Around Summit was such an inspiring event on so many levels! On behalf of MillerKnoll Foundation, we are honored and incredibly proud to have supported the winners who boldly shared their problem-solving ideas to tackle climate change. Their voice, their drive, and their passion should give us all hope knowing that our future is in the hands of a generation who cares deeply, and sees great opportunity in the power of collaborative design to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.”
Winner of the Young Climate Prize: Blossom Eromosele