Some anniversaries are simply about counting years. Others provide an opportunity to consider what an event has actually changed. This year, Design Parade belongs firmly to the latter category.
The festival began in Hyères in 2006 with a programme centred on object design. Ten years later, the villa Noailles added a second strand in Toulon devoted to interior architecture. In 2026, the two milestones therefore coincide: twenty years of object design and ten years of interior architecture, with anniversary exhibitions still open during the second half of August.
In Hyères, Design Parade exhibitions continue at the villa Noailles until 30 August. In Toulon, the anniversary exhibition “20 + 10: Génération(s) Design Parade” remains on view until 29 August in the exhibition space of the Médiathèque Chalucet, housed in the former chapel. Admission to the Toulon exhibition is free.
Twenty years become a history
Twenty years is long enough for a festival to acquire a history of its own.
Design Parade was founded with the aim of introducing emerging creators to a wider audience while providing more than a temporary showcase. Each year, ten young object designers and ten young interior architects are selected. The competitions are combined with professional support, collaborations with craftspeople and industry figures, and assistance with the production and presentation of their projects.
That approach helps explain why the 2026 anniversary is more than a conventional retrospective.
In Toulon, “20 + 10: Génération(s) Design Parade”, curated through a carte blanche given to David Giroire, looks back at the development of the festival. The works brought together reflect experiments with materials, technical research and different approaches to everyday use. More significantly, the exhibition makes it possible to see how projects that once appeared experimental gradually helped establish Design Parade’s identity.
Interior architecture and the Mediterranean
The Toulon branch has developed a character of its own. Since the interior architecture competition began in 2016, it has returned to a question directly connected with its surroundings: “how to live in the Mediterranean?”
It would be easy to reduce that idea to an aesthetic vocabulary of sunlight, pale colours and seaside references. Over successive editions, however, the projects have approached broader questions of materials, everyday habits, ways of inhabiting space and the relationship between private interiors, climate and environment.
This is where the festival’s presence in Toulon becomes significant. The city and the wider metropolitan area are not simply a backdrop for an event conceived elsewhere. The Mediterranean territory itself becomes part of the subject.
Design Parade has consequently helped establish a discipline within the local cultural landscape that is less immediately familiar to general audiences than painting, photography, music or literature: interior architecture.
Hyères and Toulon come together
The anniversary edition also changes the festival’s usual geography. For the first time, the villa Noailles in Hyères has brought together the exhibitions from both competitions — object design and interior architecture — within its historic spaces, some of which were opened especially for the occasion.
Under the artistic direction of Julie Liger, the 2026 programme highlights this year’s finalists alongside 2025 winners Simon Dupety, Thomas Takada and Malo Gagliardini. Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren of the Swedish studio Front chaired the object design jury, while Laura Gonzalez chaired the interior architecture jury.
Beyond the individual names, bringing the two competitions together allows Design Parade’s two branches to be read as parts of the same story. Objects interact with the spaces containing them; furniture meets architecture; materials and uses move naturally from one discipline to another.
That relationship may now seem obvious. It was less so when the two festivals were established a decade apart.
A festival that grew without leaving the Var
Over two decades, Design Parade has expanded while maintaining its roots in Hyères and Toulon. According to the villa Noailles, founder Jean-Pierre Blanc conceived the project as a means of supporting emerging creators, connecting them with local expertise and helping them move from an initial idea to a completed and exhibited project.
That continued local presence may be as significant as the anniversary itself.
Major cultural events are often associated with travel: audiences are expected to head for Paris, another European capital or a major artistic centre to encounter contemporary creation. For twenty years, Design Parade has operated in the opposite direction. Designers, architects, professionals and visitors come to Hyères and Toulon, while emerging creators are given a place in which to present and develop their work.
For audiences in the Var, the closing days of August therefore offer more than a final chance to catch an exhibition. They provide an opportunity to explore part of the region’s recent cultural history.
In Toulon, “20 + 10: Génération(s) Design Parade” remains open until Saturday 29 August at the Médiathèque Chalucet, from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 2pm and 3pm to 6pm. Admission is free. In Hyères, the villa Noailles exhibitions continue until Sunday 30 August, Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm to 7pm, with paid admission.
Twenty years after its beginnings, Design Parade can now be viewed in two ways: as a festival focused on the creators of tomorrow and as a chapter in the contemporary cultural history of Toulon and Hyères. The anniversary edition makes both visible at once.
