The fourth Manila Interior Design Summit (MIDS), organized by the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID), brings together conversations on materiality and craft, human experience, and design as cultural infrastructure. Through the theme “Designing New Worlds: Culture, Cities, and Future of South East Asia,” the September 30 to October 3 program considers Filipino design in relation to Southeast Asia and the wider international conversation.
The summit is conceived as “a continuous exploration, conversation and distillation of varied insights.” Its itinerary spans four days and multiple design destinations across Metro Manila, with the final day dedicated to a design symposium.
The question at its center is how Filipino design can define its voice in the region. The PIID team puts it this way: “Our position in the Philippines is not weak, it is simply unclaimed.” The program looks to what the team describes as a distinctly Filipino understanding of space—one shaped by warmth, hospitality, and humanity.
Space as a felt experience
The program is described as moving through eight interconnected tracks, including human experience and interior atmosphere; cities, density, and future urban living; sustainability, nature, and climate response; hospitality, luxury, and experience design; adaptive reuse and reinventing structure; and materiality, craft, and new technologies.
Cecil Ravelas, president of PIID, connects those subjects to the everyday experience of home and care. “Space as a felt experience shaped by emotion and memory. Hospitality as a philosophy: warmth, gathering, the care of others. Home as the primary unit.”
Ravelas also speaks to the role of Filipino care in shaping the profession’s perspective. “We are natural nurturers.” In his view, that instinct, when developed through design, can inform spaces that hold families together and restore people after a long day. He says Filipino designers are equal in skill to their international peers, and that what they bring to a space is a defining part of their contribution.
Across the four days, partner brands around the city will host activities exploring “how space receives us, how space holds us, how space carries us forward.” The closing symposium will bring the preceding days together around the question of how space makes us feel.
A regional conversation, with Filipino voices on stage
The summit’s multidisciplinary program brings together design, architecture, industry, technology, and craft. International speakers include Carlos Arnaiz of New York, Takae Ito of Tokyo, Alexander Josephson of Toronto, Satoshi Ohashi of Beijing, and Defit Wijaya of IBUKU in Bali.
The Filipino participants include Ed Calma, Tina Periquet, Anthony Nazareno, Anton Mendoza, Alfred Wieneke, Carlo Calma, Ramon Antonio, Chat Fores, Alex Co, and Edwin Uy. The program brings together designers who helped build the vocabulary of Filipino design and those who are now reworking it.
Day One: The Welcoming — How Space Receives Us
Opening day takes place at The Fifth at Rockwell. Alongside registration and the summit’s kickoff, a special anniversary exhibition, Collective 8, will feature eight Filipino design voices working with craft: Vito Selma; JB Woodcraft; Leeroy New; Rita Nazareno and Gabby Lichauco; Milo Naval; Jed Yabut; JJ Acuna for Venzon; and Iñigo Elizalde.
The PIID team describes craft as an ongoing practice: “Craft is not what we keep. It is what we keep doing.” The exhibition will include work shaped by practices passed down and developed across generations, as well as personal techniques and innovations responding to changing times.
At Poliform and Flexiform, another exhibition will present home vignettes by Ed Calma, Carlo Calma, Alex Co, Anton Mendoza, and Alfred Wieneke. The displays will explore different approaches to creating a home and how global design can fit into the Filipino home.
This evening, PIID will mark its 62nd year. Ravelas describes the anniversary as a milestone for a profession that began as a small circle of practitioners and has become a licensed, regulated, nationally organized discipline. He says Manila Interior Design Week reflects the work of deepening and extending that profession.
Day Two: Crafted Interior — How Space Holds Us
Delegates begin Day Two at different design destinations before rotating through the day’s sessions and experiences.
At Kuysen Design and Experience Center, one group will join a conversation on AI and the future of design led by Alex Josephson. Another group will begin at Casa Bella Home and Living, where Ramon Antonio will lead a discussion on designing for multigenerational families. The groups will then switch venues.
The itinerary continues at Karrivin. At Design Story, visitors can exchange ideas with Rossy Rojales, while Chat Fores will lead a session at Oppein. Walking tours and interactive experiences at Abitare, Tamarind Place, and Fashion Interiors will follow, with the day concluding over dinner and cocktails at Levanto.
Day Three: The City and the Future — How Space Carries Us Forward
Day Three turns to the future of space, with immersive tours of design hubs in BGC. Delegates will visit Focus Global, Hooga, and SMEG.
At Dexterton, Anthony Nazareno and his daughter, Bea Nazareno, will hold an open conversation with delegates. The day will wrap up at CWC Interiors.
Day Four: The Synthesis — How Space Makes Us Feel
The summit’s final day takes place at the Proscenium Theater and is dedicated to a design symposium featuring international speakers.
Alex Josephson, co-founder of PARTISANS Architecture Studio and a faculty member at the University of Toronto’s Daniels School of Architecture, is among the speakers. He is also a recipient of Canada’s Design Exchange Best Emerging Designer Award.
Takae Ito is CEO and principal design director of SALT International and external design director for Super Potato Co. Design Firm. Carlos Arnaiz is founder and principal architect of CAZA, co-founder and CEO of SURBA (Studio for Urban Analysis), and a faculty member at the Pratt Institute Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design.
Defit Wijaya, principal architect at IBUKU Studio, specializes in sustainable and regenerative design and leads culturally rooted sustainable building practices. Satoshi Ohashi is a director at Zaha Hadid Architects in Tokyo and Beijing, a lecturer at universities in Beijing, Shanghai, London, and the United States, and a selection committee juror at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts.
In closing, Ravelas describes how neighboring countries have established positions in the regional design conversation, while the Philippines’ remains to be claimed. That question gives this year’s program its focus: how Filipino design understands space, and what it can bring to conversations about the region’s cities and future.
The Manila Interior Design Summit runs from September 30 to October 3 across design destinations in Metro Manila. The detailed itinerary and schedule are available at piid.org.ph. Updates are available through @piid.official.
Photos courtesy of Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID).