HAPPENING 6–8 February 2026 | The OBJECT Rotterdam design fair returns in February, offering attendees the chance to explore fresh talent and innovative designs from around the world. The fair promises an immersive design experience in the city centre.
What is OBJECT Rotterdam exactly?
OBJECT Rotterdam is an annual, curated design fair that pops up in a different iconic building in or around Rotterdam each year. Think of it as a temporary design “market-meets-exhibition”: you walk through rooms filled with limited editions and one-off pieces by established designers, emerging talent, labels, brands and galleries.
What makes it OBJECT (instead of just another fair) is the mix. It sits right on the overlap of design, craft, fashion, architecture and art, and the organisers deliberately programme a broad range, from furniture and product design to lighting, graphics, textiles, jewellery and fashion.
A nice practical detail: designers are typically there in person, so you can actually talk to them about the work instead of just staring at a price tag and guessing.
OBJECT Rotterdam 2026: showcasing global and local design talent
For the 2026 edition, more than one hundred designers have already registered, ranging from emerging talents to established names, small design labels and well-known furniture brands. Together they will bring the building’s core floors back to life with interior products, textile designs, light installations and sculptural objects.
“It is very special to be able to open the fair in Rotterdam’s living room, where so many residents have felt welcome over the past decades,” says OBJECT director Anne van der Zwaag. With the fair she aims to connect visitors, designers and the city by placing contemporary work in a setting that many Rotterdammers know from daily use.
OBJECT Rotterdam | Atelier Yvette Visser
Participants in 2026
This edition brings together more than 150 participants, mixing independent designers with galleries, shops, and labels. A big part of the line-up is new talent: over 25 recent graduates are taking part, including Koen van Tuijl, Studio Phozoho and Jelmer Nijp from Eindhoven, Luuk van de Grift and Rachel Mell from Rotterdam, Sonya Levchynska from The Hague, Job van der Bent from Arnhem and Aidan Neuféglise from Middelburg.
You will also spot a broader network around design, including galleries and interiors names such as Rademakers Gallery, Gallery Untitled, Rotterdam design boutique Plaisier Avantgarde, and Just Haastnoot from Wassenaar. Established labels are in the mix too, including IKONIC, APTUM and The Boyscouts. The participant list stretches across Rotterdam and the rest of the Netherlands and it also brings in makers from abroad, including Jules Péan from Luxembourg, Noēma from Barcelona, Lucie Briand from Brussels and Miranda Axelsson from Borlänge in Sweden.
Among the participating makers are studios working with colourful lighting, playful furniture and experimental materials. Examples highlighted by the organisers include lighting by outil.li, objects by designer Teun Zwets, a compact cabinet by byLYN ceramics, desks by MAK studio, candleholders by Wanderlights, textile work by Studio der Luminaire and wall objects by Eversom.
For the latest updates regarding the event and participants, you can check out OBJECT Rotterdam's official website, as names can change.
OBJECT moves into Rotterdam's central library
Every year, OBJECT presents recent work by a wide group of designers at an architecturally interesting location in Rotterdam. Previous editions have taken place in buildings such as Las Palmas, De Rotterdam, the Euromast, the ss Rotterdam, the HAKA-gebouw and most recently AIR, the former V&D department store.
In early February 2026, design fair OBJECT will take place in the Centrale Bibliotheek Rotterdam, right in the city centre opposite the Markthal. The library building will soon undergo a large-scale renovation, which makes this edition a final opportunity to experience the interior in its current form while it is filled with new work by designers and artists.
During the fair, the empty library floors will become an exhibition route. Visitors will be able to wander through the central levels of the building, where reading rooms and bookshelves once stood, now occupied by furniture pieces, light objects, textiles and other design work. Meanwhile, the library collection itself will be available nearby in the temporary location on the Librijesteeg.
A live library auction
One of the most intriguing threads running through OBJECT 2026 is what happens after the fair. In spring 2026, the Municipality of Rotterdam plans to stage an auction of special objects from the Central Library, a clear sign that the building is not just closing its doors but also emptying its pockets and cupboards ahead of renovation.
The headline lots are the lights. For decades, familiar Zumtobel lamps helped define the library’s atmosphere, practical, bright, built for long afternoons. During OBJECT, artists will remake these lamps into unique, one of a kind pieces, and you can watch the process live on the open stage. Among those involved are visual artist Iwan Smit and illustrator Maite Prince.
The proceeds are set to go to a good cause. The press release does not yet name which charity will receive the money, so we will update this as soon as the Municipality confirms where the funds will land. For now, it is enough to know that you are not just buying a relic or a redesign, you are helping to turn a public building’s past life into support for something new.
Renovation of the central library
After more than forty years, the Central Library is scheduled for a thorough renovation. Rotterdam architecture office Powerhouse Company, together with Atelier Oslo, Lundhagem and DELVA landscape architects, has developed a plan for a more sustainable, future-proof building. The project is a collaboration between the Municipality of Rotterdam and Bibliotheek Rotterdam.
The renovation will start in 2026, with the renewed Central Library expected to open in 2029. During this period, the library service will continue from a temporary home around the corner in the Librijesteeg. On Hoogstraat, directly opposite the Markthal, the familiar yellow pipes and external staircases of the library will therefore be seen in a different context while work is carried out inside.
The Central Library of Rotterdam, designed in 1983 by the architecture firm Van den Broek en Bakema. Photo: Stijn Brakkee
About Rotterdam's Central Library
The current Central Library was officially opened on 7 October 1983 by Queen Beatrix. The postmodern building, designed by architects Jaap Bakema and Hans Boot of Van den Broek en Bakema, was chosen through a design competition and is often compared to the Centre Pompidou in Paris because of its visible pipes and structural elements.
With around 2.5 million visitors per year, the Central Library is the most visited cultural institution in Rotterdam. Hosting OBJECT in this setting underlines the building’s role as a meeting place, where literature, design and architecture come together in one central location before the next phase of its history begins.
OBJECT: Practical information for visitors
Design fair OBJECT in 2026 will be held in the Central Library Rotterdam at Hoogstraat 110. The fair runs from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 February 2026, and is open daily from 11.00 to 18.00. Tickets cost €17,50 and are available both online and at the door; children under 16 years of age can enter free of charge.
How to get there
The Central Library Rotterdam is located at Hoogstraat 110, opposite the Markthal and close to Station Blaak, in the heart of the city centre. The area is part of the Laurenskwartier, where shops, food halls and cultural institutions are concentrated within walking distance of each other.
The venue is easily reached by train, tram, metro and bus via Station Blaak, and is also connected to the city’s cycling network. Visitors coming from other parts of Rotterdam can travel via Oostplein, Beurs or Rotterdam Centraal and continue on foot or by bike through the inner city streets.
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