The BIG SEE Festival returns on May 21-22, 2026, to Portorož, Slovenia, as the leading architecture and product design platform in South-East Europe, bringing together architects, designers, brands, and decision-makers from across the world. Formerly known as BIG Architecture and BIG Design, the unified BIG SEE Festival reflects anexpanded ambition: to frame architecture and design as critical tools for navigating complexity, responsibility, and change. 

At the centre of BIG SEE Festival 2026 is one urgent question:
Too much? What is just enough? 

We live in a time of abundance. More images, more buildings, more products, more tools, more opinions. While architecture and design operate within unprecedented freedom, the question of measure has rarely felt more pressing. The challenge today is no longer whether something can be built or designed, but whether it should be—and why. Architecture and design were never meant to feed excess. They exist to provide structure, shelter, orientation, and dignity; to bring order where there is chaos and meaning where there is complexity. When everything becomes possible, the ability to choose restraint becomes a responsibility. 

At BIG SEE Festival 2026, Too much? What is just enough? is not treated as a slogan, butas a guiding framework that shapes the entire platform —from the conference and awards to the trade show, exhibitions, talks, and editorial content. The festival unfolds across three interconnected layers: the conference provides space for reflection and debate on measure, relevance, and meaning in architecture and design; the awards recognise outstanding architecture and product design, highlighting work defined by clarity, intention, and real context rather than excess; and the trade show presents a curated selection of materials, products, and technologies that architects genuinely need to specify, trust, and build with. Together, these layers aim not to prescribe answers, but to sharpen awareness of scale, relevance, responsibility, and long-term impact.

Conference: Pause and Take Responsibility

The BIG SEE Conference is where architecture and design pause —and take responsibility. It is not a conference about trends, but about relevance, judgment, and consequence. Curated through five perspectives —Architecture and Relevance, Urban Humanity, The Great Reduction, BIG and Measure in Architecture —by Selçuk Avcı, Einar Jarmund, Lutz Kucher, Tanja Završki, and Aleksander Ostan, the programme confronts some of the profession’s most uncomfortable questions: who architecture truly serves today, how cities can remain human, where reduction becomes intelligence, and how ethical measure can guide design decisions.

Established and emerging practitioners are deliberately paired to create friction ratherthan consensus, and the format invites active audience participation. This is notasequence of polished presentations, but a space for real exchange—whereassumptions are challenged, responsibility is shared, and architecture is discussed asa discipline that must once again serve life rather than image. Participants leave notwith formulas, but with sharper judgment, renewed perspective, and questions thatextend far beyond the conference hall.

BIG SEE Awards 2026

Launched in 2018, the BIG SEE Awards initially focused on Southeast Europe and have since evolved into an international recognition of meaningful achievements in architecture and product design. At BIG SEE, an award is not a trophy. It is a professional acknowledgment of work that demonstrates substance over scale, clarity over spectacle, and originality rooted in realcontext. Winning projects gain strong international visibility across the BIG SEE platform and become part of a wider, year-long editorial and festival narrative. Regular submissions for the BIG SEE Awards 2026 in Architecture & Interior Design, and Product Design are open until March 15, 2026, at bigsee.eu.

Trade Show: Innovations That Matter

The BIG SEE Trade Show is a curated alternative to large commercial fairs. Intended for architects and designers who influence real projects, it presents innovations that truly matter —from early design thinking to specification and execution— prioritising relevance, dialogue, and long-term impact over volume. As part of the BIG SEE ecosystem, the trade show creates meaningful connections that extend well beyond the event itself. With more than 3,000 visitors from over 21 countries, over 100 curated exhibitors, and more than 800 live moments across two days, BIG SEE Festival 2026 creates a dense yet considered professional environment —where visitors do not simply pass by, but engage, connect, and shape the projects of tomorrow.

A Collective Question – Take Part in the Survey

As part of the 2026 theme, BIG SEE is launching an international survey exploring how architecture and design can respond to excess, noise, and complexity. The survey invites architects, designers, and creative professionals worldwide to share their perspective on what “just enough” means today. Responses will form a collective reflection that continues live at BIG SEE Festival 2026. Selected contributions may be published on bigsee.eu and become part of the festival’s editorial content and conference discussions.

Participants receive:
–a free entrance invitation to BIG SEE Festival 2026,
–the opportunity to join a live conference discussion,
–the possibility for their response to be published on bigsee.eu,
–and access to the wider BIG SEE international creative community.

When everything becomes possible, choosing enough becomes a professional and ethical act. BIG SEE Festival 2026 exists to create space for that choice —not to celebrate spectacle, but to encourage discernment; not to simplify complexity, but to make sense of it, together. The survey and all information on registration, submissions, and participation are available at bigsee.eu/too-much-what-is-just-enough.