Filipino Designers, This One Is for You — Interdesign® Is Coming to Siargao

Last November, I was in Siargao on official business.

Not for vacation — though I will not pretend the view was bad. I was part of the DTI team assisting the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP) during their ocular inspection for an upcoming international design event. Three days, November 17 to 19, 2025. Venue assessments, meetings with LGU officials in Del Carmen and General Luna, coordination on the ground.

I walked those venues. I sat in those rooms. I saw what they were building.

Now it is almost here — and if you are a Filipino designer, architect, creative professional, or anyone working where design meets sustainability, you have until March 31, 2026 to be part of it.

That is less than two weeks. Read this now.

What Is Interdesign® and Why Should You Care

Interdesign® is the World Design Organization's flagship residency programme — two weeks, designers from around the world, one locally significant and globally relevant design challenge. Not a seminar. Not a conference. An actual working residency where real design concepts get developed for real communities.

This year it lands in Siargao Island, Philippines — July 13 to 24, 2026 — with the theme Design Innovation and Resiliency for the Tropics.

Hosted by the World Design Organization, the Design Center of the Philippines, and De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde, the programme will work across four focus areas — circular economy, climate resilience and disaster preparedness, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable MSMEs and communities.

That last one. Sustainable MSMEs and communities. That is the world I work in every single day as OTOP Technical Staff — small businesses, local cooperatives, Filipino products trying to reach bigger markets. This programme is designed for exactly those communities. And it needs designers who understand them.

Who They Are Looking For

Designers working at the systems, service, and policy level. Industrial designers, architects, interior designers, communication designers, UX/UI practitioners, people in climate resilience and circular economy. You need to be 21 or older.

If you are Filipino — your local context is not just a credential here. It is the whole point. Siargao is the classroom. Your lived experience in a tropical, typhoon-affected, island community is the kind of knowledge international design programmes cannot import. You bring it naturally.

Apply.

What You Get

Full hotel accommodation, all meals, and local transportation during the residency. Direct access to international design experts and the WDO's global network. A structured two-week immersion that will look very good on your professional story — and more importantly, will do actual good for actual communities.

You cover your own flights and travel insurance. Everything else on-site is handled.

The Deadline Is March 31. Thirteen Days.

I know how this goes. You read something interesting, you think "I'll come back to this," and suddenly it is April and the application is closed and someone else is packing for Siargao in July.

Do not do that here.

Apply: https://wdo.org/programmes/interdesign/siargaoisland2026/

Read the eligibility. Check the requirements. If you qualify — submit before March 31, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

Okay, Last Thing — I Promise

I am an IT professional and government OTOP staff who designs product labels and writes a blog about health, tech, and life in general. I am not the architect or industrial designer this programme is recruiting.

But I was in Siargao in November when the groundwork was being laid. I sat in the LGU meetings. I saw the venues. And I genuinely believe that Filipino designers belong in that room come July.

Siargao has a story to tell. Go tell it with them.

Deadline: March 31, 2026 Apply here: https://wdo.org/programmes/interdesign/siargaoisland2026/

FAQs

WDO | Siargao Island 2026 | Interdesign 2026 – FAQ

Disclosure: I participated in the ocular inspection for this event as DTI staff assisting the Design Center of the Philippines. This post is based on publicly available programme information from the World Design Organization website. I am not a spokesperson for DCP, WDO, or De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde — just someone who was there and thinks Filipino designers need to know about this.