Architecture is about more than buildings, it’s about connections.

This fall, join AIA Central Valley for Experience Architecture 2026, a multi-week celebration of design, place, and community across our 17-county region. This year’s festival brings together a dynamic mix of tours, talks, hands-on experiences, and opportunities to connect with the people and ideas shaping our built environment.

The 2026 lineup offers opportunities for architects, design professionals, students, families, and the broader community to learn, engage, and experience architecture in new ways.

The season begins with The Ripple Effect: An In-Person Lunch & Learn on September 22, followed by LEED v5: What Architects Need to Know on September 29. Families can get creative at Hands-On Architecture for Kids on October 3, while professionals can connect through the Civic Engagement Team (CET) meeting on October 6 and the Housing Task Force (HTF) meeting on October 14.

October also features Design Narrative on October 15, the Committee for Architecture in Education (CAE) meeting on October 20, and Between Place and Space: The Architecture of Critical Regionalism on October 27. The Civic Engagement Team (CET) returns on November 3, continuing opportunities for members to engage with issues affecting architecture and the community.

With educational programs, hands-on activities, committee gatherings, lectures, and conversations exploring the relationship between architecture, place, community, and the environment, Experience Architecture 2026 offers many ways to participate.

Whether you’re curious about the spaces around you, looking to deepen your understanding of design, or actively involved in shaping the built environment, Experience Architecture 2026 invites you to connect—with ideas, with each other, and with the future of our communities.

Come explore. Come connect. Come experience architecture.

Click here for more information!