In Bali, design rarely exists in isolation from its surroundings. For its fifth edition, Jia CURATED moves closer to the elements themselves, relocating to a beachfront setting where sand, stone, vegetation, shifting light and the sea become part of the exhibition’s spatial vocabulary.

Running from August 13–17, 2026, the festival returns to Bali with more than 250 brands and designers from Indonesia and abroad. This year’s edition unfolds at Pengembak Beach in Sanur, a 15,000-square-metre coastal site framed by pine trees and mangroves on the island’s eastern side. With views that extend toward both sunrise and sunset, the new location introduces a different physical condition for a festival traditionally concerned with the relationship between craft, design and culture.

The setting has also shaped the intellectual direction of the 2026 programme. Under the theme “Nature Weave,” Jia CURATED examines the connections between human activity, design and natural systems, asking participants to respond to the landscape rather than simply occupy it.

The visual identity for the theme was created by Argentine digital mixed-media artist Sares, whose work reflects the idea of interconnected systems that lies at the centre of this year’s programme.

At its core is the notion of biophilia, the understanding that human wellbeing is deeply connected to our relationship with the natural world. Jia CURATED co-founder Budiman Ong approaches the idea from a more fundamental position: nature is not an external environment surrounding us, but a condition in which human life is permanently embedded.

That perspective became particularly tangible when the curatorial team first encountered Pengembak Beach. Ong describes the site almost as a collaborator, with its physical character influencing decisions about construction, presentation and narrative. Exhibitors were encouraged to adopt the same sensitivity, allowing the terrain to inform how their structures would be built and how their work would be encountered.

The philosophy also extends an idea that has been present in Jia CURATED since its earliest editions: Gotong Royong, the Indonesian principle of mutual cooperation. Rather than positioning designers, artisans, institutions, brands and visitors as separate participants, the festival considers them parts of a wider network whose value emerges through interaction.

Architecture in Scale

Among the returning highlights is “Architecture in Scale”, an exhibition of architectural maquettes that follows its successful debut in 2025. Curated by design journalist and South China Morning Post design editor Charmaine Chan, the 2026 edition brings together 25 scale models of completed buildings from Indonesia and across Asia.

The selection includes work by Kengo Kuma & Associates, andramatin, Bensley Design Studio Bali, Alexis Dornier, IBUKU Studio, SHAU, Cave Urban, CHANG Architects and DDAP Architect, bringing a range of architectural approaches into a single physical landscape.

Chan connects the exhibition to the wider idea of biophilia, treating the relationship between architecture and nature as something embedded in structure rather than added as decoration. The curatorial thinking also draws from the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, which places wellbeing within a balance between the spiritual, the social and the natural.

There is also a distinctly tactile reason for presenting architecture at this scale. As digital visualisation becomes increasingly dominant, the maquette restores a physical encounter with architectural thought. The models can be observed from multiple angles, examined as objects and understood through their material presence rather than through a screen.

The Philippines Takes the Spotlight

Each edition of Jia CURATED dedicates a section to a country whose creative scene is gaining influence across the region. For 2026, that focus turns to the Philippines through an exhibition titled “Tomorrow”, curated by Gabriel Lichauco of NEWFOLK.

The project brings together nine Filipino designers and ten craft workshops, connecting contemporary design with indigenous knowledge, material traditions and questions surrounding sustainability and cultural continuity.

Rather than treating heritage as something static, the exhibition considers how traditional knowledge can remain active within contemporary design practice. The result is a conversation between generations of making, with the Earth itself positioned as part of the discussion.

Design as Conversation

The festival’s 360° Design Dialogues, curated by Design Anthology, returns with a programme dedicated to the relationship between design, material and place.

Keynote speakers include Bethan Laura Wood, Peter Stutchbury and Fiona Lynch, joined by Kwangho Lee, Cheng Tsung Feng and Gabriel Tan. The programme deliberately extends beyond the most familiar voices within international design, creating space for practitioners whose work emerges from different cultural, geographic and material contexts.

The same principle informs Waste to Wonder 2.0, Jia CURATED‘s expanded circular-design initiative. Rather than treating exhibition materials as disposable once the event closes, the project redirects them into new uses. Tyvek roofing is transformed into patio umbrellas and cushion filling, while cardboard tubes and salvaged timber become exhibition structures. Packaging crates supplied by Lamitak are given another life as seating throughout the grounds.

Here, sustainability becomes a practical part of exhibition-making rather than a statement attached to it.

Planting Future Collaborations

New to the 2026 programme is Project Benih, an initiative connecting artisans, manufacturers and designers from Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan.

Benih means “seed” in Indonesian, an appropriate name for a project concerned less with immediate results than with relationships that require time to develop. Nine designers from the three countries will present an existing work that expresses their individual approach to design, while 13 Indonesian artisans and manufacturers will introduce their materials, techniques and processes.

During the festival, participants will meet directly and select collaborators based on shared values and creative approaches. Those partnerships will then develop throughout the following year with support from the Jia CURATED team, with the resulting work expected to be presented in 2027.

The structure deliberately resists the pressure to produce something finished on demand. The first stage is simply the encounter: finding the right person, material or method from which something else might eventually emerge.

Beyond the Object

Jia CURATED continues to occupy an unusual position within the international design calendar. While many established fairs remain closely tied to commerce, collecting and the transaction surrounding finished objects, the Bali festival has developed a broader understanding of what a design event can accomplish.

Its exhibitions, talks, material experiments and collaborative programmes operate around relationships rather than isolated products. “Nature Weave” extends that philosophy into the landscape itself, proposing that design is shaped not only by human intention but by geography, culture, material, memory and the people who participate in its making.

At Pengembak Beach, that idea becomes physical. The boundaries between exhibition and landscape, object and material, designer and artisan begin to loosen.

For Jia CURATED, the finished object is only one part of the story. What surrounds it, the relationships, knowledge, hands, places and exchanges that allow it to exist, is where the more interesting story begins.

Artwork: (c) SARES

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Cover photo: (c) Christopher Octav