In cities with stable infrastructures, design weeks often operate as polished showcases — predictable, calendar-bound, export-ready. In Beirut, the story is different. Here, creative platforms are not seasonal activations; they are survival mechanisms.

Returning for its third edition in May 2027, WE Design Beirut has evolved beyond the format of a conventional design week. Conceived by Mariana Wehbe, the initiative functions less as a branded event and more as a connective tissue — linking designers, artisans, architects, students, performers, and independent thinkers across disciplines that rarely sit in neat categories.

What distinguishes WE Design Beirut is not scale but structure. It began as a five-day programme, yet its real ambition lies in what continues beyond those days: conversations, collaborations, and systems that outlive the exhibition walls. The upcoming edition will once again open its doors to exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions, open studios, and independent showcases — formats that allow both formal presentation and spontaneous exchange.

An open call for participation is expected in April 2026, signalling an expanded and more inclusive framework. But the deeper significance is cultural. In a city where institutions often struggle to provide continuity, the creative community has repeatedly built its own platforms. WE Design Beirut is part of that lineage — not a spectacle imposed on the city, but a structure grown from within it.

Wehbe has described the initiative as a space for learning and dialogue — a platform that “breaks barriers” across the creative spectrum, from makers and artisans to designers and architects. It is intentionally porous. It resists the pressure to define itself too narrowly.

And perhaps that is its most radical gesture: refusing to fit.

In Beirut, design does not wait for perfect conditions. It assembles itself — collectively, insistently, and with an instinct for continuity. WE Design Beirut 2027 stands as evidence of that persistence.