MATRA Design Foundation’s three-day retreat will bring together architects, designers, artists and practitioners from across creative disciplines
11°N, an initiative of the MATRA Design Foundation, will bring together practitioners and thinkers from architecture, design, art, craft, film, music, food and technology for a multidisciplinary retreat in Kerala from December 16 to 20, 2026. The inaugural edition, centred on the theme “The Space Between the Noise”, was previewed at The Circle at IFBE, Ballard Estate, Mumbai, on September 16.
The retreat is positioned as a platform for cross-disciplinary exchange, with architecture and design forming an important part of a wider creative ecosystem. The Mumbai preview brought together architects, designers, artists, filmmakers and other practitioners, including Arjun Malik, Bose Krishnamachari, Brijesh Shaijal, Brinda Somaya, Kamal Malik, Nandita Das, Sanjay Patil, Sanjay Puri, Suresh Eriyath, Tony Joseph, George Seemon, Vivek PP, Ravi Udyawar, Sunil Padwal, Dhruvi Acharya, Sreela Chatterjee, Alex Kuruvilla, Ravneet Gill and Randolph Correia, among others.
The central proposition of 11°N, “The Space Between the Noise”, focuses on creating an environment for slower, informal and cross-disciplinary engagement. Instead of a conventional conference format with a fixed sequence of sessions, the retreat will combine conversations and presentations with installations, hands-on making, a design market, culinary experiences, music and film.
Kerala’s built environment, landscape, craft traditions and material culture will form part of the setting for the retreat. The organisers envisage the destination not merely as a venue but as an element through which participants can engage with architecture, design, craft and local cultural practices.
The programme will include talks and intimate dialogues alongside opportunities for making, exploration and informal interaction. The daily format is expected to include activities such as yoga and bird walks in the mornings, followed by talks and exchanges, while afternoons will focus on making, food and exploration. Evenings will include shared dinners, music, games and gatherings around the fire.
Tony Joseph, Principal, Stapati, said, “11°N is an attempt to create something that cannot be reduced to a programme or a series of talks. We wanted to create the conditions for people to slow down and encounter ideas, places and each other without the usual pressure to keep moving. Kerala gives us the setting to do that in a very natural way. The food, landscape, craft, music and built environment are not backdrops to the experience; they are part of the experience. We hope people leave with new perspectives, but also with the memory of having genuinely spent time somewhere, with interesting people, and with themselves.”
Around 400–500 invited participants are expected to form the community for the inaugural edition. The gathering will span different fields and stages of creative practice, creating opportunities for architects and designers to engage with practitioners from art, film, food, technology and craft.
The organisers said the retreat is designed around discovery rather than a prescribed itinerary, allowing participants to encounter different materials, practices and ideas through informal interactions and shared experiences. For the architecture and design community, the format creates an opportunity to engage with disciplines beyond conventional professional boundaries while exploring Kerala’s distinctive relationship between landscape, built form, craft and culture.
