AIA26 opens its keynote series with an unrivaled lineup of visionaries and thought leaders focused on today’s most pressing challenges and tomorrow’s boldest opportunities. This session sets the tone for what’s ahead!
Emcee Weijia Jiang, Senior White House Correspondent for CBS News, brings her signature insight to explore the profession’s vital role in shaping society on both a national and global scale. Jiang welcomes AIA EVP/CEO Carole Wedge, FAIA, and AIA 2026 President Illya Azaroff, FAIA to the stage to honor Shigeru Ban with the prestigious AIA Gold Medal 2026. Wedge then delivers an inspiring message on the immense value architects bring to industries and communities, highlighting their leadership in tackling climate challenges, driving innovation, and creating a more sustainable and equitable future.
Emmy-nominated producer of Hulu series Taste the Nation, New York Times bestselling author, TIME 100 honoree, and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Padma Lakshmi then takes the mainstage. Her decades of work in immigrant and indigenous communities reveals a direct parallel for architects: the knowledge needed to design resilient, equitable communities often already exists. It has been developed over generations—through farming traditions, fermentation practices, and regenerative food systems—by the communities least consulted in the design process. Lakshmi challenges architects to listen, learn, and bring that knowledge into the systems and structures they build.
Learning Objectives
- Recognize how indigenous and immigrant communities have developed regenerative, climate-adapted solutions that offer direct applications for resilient design.
- Identify strategies for meaningfully engaging underrepresented communities in the design process to surface knowledge that improves built outcomes.
- Examine the relationship between food systems, land use, and the built environment as a framework for approaching sustainable, community-centered design.
- Apply lessons from cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives to advance equity and climate resilience in architectural practice.