What makes a project genuinely memorable isn’t just how it looks—it’s how clearly its ideas hold together from concept to construction. In an industry often obsessed with novelty, Butler Armsden Architects Director of Design Sunwoo Kim argues for the enduring value of convention, clarity, and restraint. Drawing from architectural theory (from Vitruvius to Venturi), grounded in

​As robots enter homes, hospitals, and public spaces, their design language—how they look, move, and behave—will shape how we trust and relate to them. This session, hosted by design leaders at IDEO, explores emerging visual, interactional, and behavioral grammars of human-robot interaction. Must robots mimic humans or machines, or can new forms evolve? Alongside special

What does a room sound like? Join us for an evening with architect Craig O’Connell and special guests from EMPIRE Records and Bang & Olufsen, delving into the meeting of California Organic and Scandinavian aesthetic in a conversation about how sound and multimedia transform our indoor and outdoor spaces for beautiful living. Sound Sampling Hour

Join us at Thuma’s San Francisco flagship store for a happy hour hosted by Thuma’s Design Team. From 6:00–8:00 PM, guests are invited to experience the space through a behind the scenes lens, with a selection of informal design process materials gathered from our studio offering insight into how our products come to life. Enjoy

Most careers don’t stall because of lack of skill.They stall because the story isn’t clear. This hands-on workshop introduces Career as a Brand System™, a framework for turning your work into something visible, legible, and opportunity-generating. Originally developed through work across mobility, hardware, and consumer technology—and recently taught at Fremont Tech Week—this session focuses on

Introduced by Box Clever x Weave Robotics Meet leaders from Weave Robotics and Box Clever, and learn about their shared vision for home robotics. With its new general-purpose robot launching in 2026, Weave has partnered with SF-based studio Box Clever to design a robot that truly fits in the home. Together, Weave and Box Clever

This 40-minute presentation will reframe creativity through cultural movement and lived multiplicity, inspired by Sonya Yu’s upbringing between Beijing and the Bay Area. The duality of cultures taught her to move between languages, expectations, and ways of seeing — not as a strategy, but as survival. Over time, that in-between space became her creative practice:

Gazetteer: A new approach to local news, starting in San Francisco. No SEO games, no social media, just the news you need today. An Intimate fireside chat about printing, design, and news media in the age of digital channels. Join Gazetteer SF‘s Jack Browning and SF Design Week CEO Dawn Zidonis as Jack shares his