Architectural historians Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley have been appointed to curate the third Istanbul Design Biennial, which will be held from 22 October to 4 December 2016.
The husband-and-wife duo, both established curators and architecture professors, will follow in the footsteps of past directors Joseph Grima and Zoë Ryan to plan the design festival that takes place in the Turkish city every two years.
Colomina is best known as the author of books including Manifesto Architecture: The Ghost of Mies (2014), Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (1994) and Sexuality and Space (1992). She is also a professor at Princeton University, and the curator of exhibitions including Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X.
Wigley, a New York-based critic and theorist from New Zealand, is professor and dean emeritus at Columbia University's school of architecture, as well as the author of The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida's Haunt (1993) and White Walls, Designer Dresses: The Fashioning of Modern Architecture (1995).
The Istanbul Design Biennial is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), and the theme of the next exhibition is due to be revealed by the curators in December 2015.
Last year's show focused on the role of the future in design, with highlights including a typeface designed for dyslexic readers, while the inaugural biennial looked at how new methods of production are bringing about a "cultural revolution".