Design meets city-making in Africa’s fastest-growing urban hub

Design Week Africa 2025 has found its home—not in a hall, but in a living, breathing city. Our partnership with Tilisi Development PLC goes beyond event logistics. It is a shared vision to make design a cornerstone of urban development.

Just 30 minutes from Nairobi, Tilisi City isn’t simply a venue—it’s a vision rising. A master-planned smart city that seamlessly blends residential, commercial, and green zones, Tilisi stands out not just for its infrastructure—but for its intention, ambition, and momentum.

This is not a backdrop. It’s a blueprint for the future—a city in motion, purposefully curated to host a design experience that resonates far beyond aesthetics. Tilisi lives at the intersection of bold planning and boundless possibility. It is where design isn’t just discussed—it’s deployed.

For the curators of Design Week Africa 2025, Tilisi offered more than a location. It offered a living lab for innovation. Where else can a product debut in an exhibition and find its place in an actual urban blueprint? Where can architects host masterclasses on the very ground that is being shaped into tomorrow’s cityscape?

This partnership opens up unique access for our sponsors, country pavilions, and city delegations to influence real-world solutions. From smart home systems and urban agriculture to modular architecture and transport design—Tilisi becomes a testing ground for what is next.

When we say Design Week Africa will build cities, this is what we mean. Not just metaphors. Not just mood boards. But measurable progress.

If you want to be part of Africa’s story of transformation, start here. Start in Tilisi. Build with us. Dream with us. Design with purpose. Because Tilisi is not just hosting Design Week Africa. It’s helping build it.

This is more than hosting. It is co-building. We’re offering manufacturers, architects, urban planners, and creatives the chance to plug into a real city-building experience—not just with blueprints, but with bricks, branding, and bold ideas.

Design Week Africa 2025 at Tilisi will be a milestone. Not just for design—but also for how we live.