Montreal has been a UNESCO City of Design for twenty years. It just took this long to get a design week to match.
Running April 28 to May 7, Semaine Design Montréal brings together the city's scattered design energy under one banner for the first time with ten days of open studios, exhibitions, trade shows, conferences, architecture walks, and parties spread across more than 50 venues citywide.
The programming splits roughly into two streams, some of it is professional-facing and ticketed: the Conference Day at the Musée des beaux-arts on April 29 and the Index-Design Trade Show at the Grand Quai on April 30 are the twin anchors, built for architects, designers, and industry insiders. The rest—the majority of it—is free and open to anyone willing to spend some time with the city's design community. That's where this guide comes in.
What follows is a curated selection of highlights across the ten days: the anchor events worth buying a ticket for, the open studios and exhibitions worth rearranging your week around, the design destinations that reward a drop-in, and the places to end up once the showroom circuit winds down. The full program is extensive, so consider this a starting point, not an exhaustive list. For everything else, the official website has a searchable map and a complete event calendar.
A practical note: some events have limited capacity or fill quickly even without a reservation requirement. Arriving early is rarely a bad idea.
The Anchors
Conference Day at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
Wednesday, April 29 | 8:30 am – 5 pm | Ticketed
The MMFA is a fitting place to kick off the city's first design week. The Conference Day brings together fifteen leading voices for a full day of talks and panels — the kind of programming that usually requires a flight to attend. Gilles Saucier opens with a reflection on major Montreal projects; ACDF's Maxime Frappier traces the evolution of his firm; Blanc Marine Intérieurs takes on timeless design; a panel tackles Montreal's built heritage. British designer Bethan Laura Wood, the week's guest of honour, closes out the formal program. Tickets required.
Index-Design Trade Show at the Grand Quai
Thursday, April 30 | 9 am – 5 pm | Ticketed
The trade show is the week's main drawcard, a 20-year-old institution that has long been Quebec's most important annual gathering for architecture and design professionals, now with a proper design week built around it. This year, 70 local and international manufacturers fill the Grand Quai under the theme In(ter)disciplinés, with Humà Design + Architecture—named Design Firm of 2026—handling the scenography. Panels on circular construction, wellness, and adaptive design run throughout the day, alongside art installations from Camille Lescarbeau, Rümker, Umano Studio, and others. The day ends with a cocktail party presented by Vicostone.
Events Worth Clearing Your Calendar For
Gallery 6250 Opening, Lambert & Fils
Tuesday, April 29 | 6 – 9 pm | Free
Lambert & Fils has been producing some of Montreal's most quietly influential lighting for years. Their Mile End gallery at 6250 Hutchison has been dark for two years; the reopening brings Toronto-based furniture manufacturer Ourse in as the first guest—a studio that produces in Montreal—making this less a comeback than a statement of intent. The opening is April 29; the exhibition runs through May 7.
Open Studio at Ināt
April 28 – May 7 | 9 am – 5 pm | Free, no reservation
Ināt is a Montreal furniture studio built on a simple premise: let the hands lead. The work puts intuition and manual process ahead of rigid control, producing pieces that feel lived-in before you've touched them. For the full ten days of Design Week, the studio opens its doors to anyone curious about how that actually works.
Parc Avenue: JETA, Riberdy, Sangaré, Séjour, Fomenta, Paguet
April 29 – May 2 | Wed–Fri 10 am – 6 pm; Sat 10 am – midnight | Free
A cluster of Montreal design studios converging on a stretch of Avenue du Parc. The JETA showroom and Sarah-Jeanne Riberdy's ceramics studio serve as the hub, welcoming Atelier Fomenta, Séjour, Sangaré, Jérémy Paguet, and others to show work being unveiled in Montreal for the first time. Saturday May 2 stays open until midnight, with Ensemble and Polari Bar turning the alleyway terrace into something worth staying for.
The Franciscains Convent
May 1 – 3 | Guided tours May 2 and 3, 10 – 11 am and 2 – 3 pm | Free
Built between 1914 and 1960 in Rosemont-Est, the Franciscains Convent is one of those buildings most Montrealers have passed without registering. Design Week uses it as a live case study in adaptive reuse with an in-progress conversation about how you make tomorrow's city out of yesterday's buildings.
Finish “A Guide to Design Week Montreal 2026”
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