In May 2026, 1014 launched The Next Frontiers Symposium, bringing together leading voices from the United States and Germany to explore how culture, science, technology, business, politics, and design will shape the future of our societies. Marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, the two-part symposium reflects on the enduring idea of the "New Frontier"—first articulated by President John F. Kennedy as a call to exploration, innovation, and social progress, and later echoed by President Ronald Reagan as a vision of a nation continually renewed by the aspirations of its people.

Building on the shared history and enduring partnership between the United States and Germany, Part I explored the ideas, collaborations, and emerging frontiers that will define the decades ahead. From architecture and immersive storytelling to space governance, democracy, artificial intelligence, and planetary resilience, the symposium demonstrated that the future is not something we simply anticipate, it is something we create together.

This fall, Next Frontiers II: Delivering the Next Frontiers shifts the conversation from vision to implementation. If Part I asked what's next?, Part II asks how do we get from here to there?

Across three immersive and thematically connected Night Labs, leading experts from both sides of the Atlantic will explore how discoveries are translated into tangible outcomes. From intelligent materials and quantum computing to synthetic biology, neuroscience, AI, and human performance, the series examines how ideas become products, technologies, and experiences that reshape the way we build, live, and perform.

Stay tuned for our full speaker lineup and registration details.

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THE PROGRAM:

NIGHT LAB I | MATERIALS OF TOMORROW (The Building Frontiers)
Exploring how matter becomes intelligent, adaptive, and alive.

What if your walls could heal themselves? What if buildings folded into shape overnight without a single bolt or motor? What if the materials of tomorrow were invented not by scientists, but by algorithms trained on the laws of physics?

Night Lab I takes you inside the laboratories where the boundary between the living and the built is dissolving. From the 2,000-year-old secrets of Roman concrete to quantum AI discovering superconductors no human ever imagined, from timber towers that self-assemble from moisture to fungi-laced concrete that stays biologically alive — we are witnessing the emergence of a new material world.

Join us for an exploration into a world where matter becomes alive.

NIGHT LAB II | ENGINEERED EVOLUTION (The Bio-Human Frontiers)
Exploring how biology, materials, and computation reshape the human body and mind.

What if materials become a bridge between biology and computation? How do we redesign the body and the mind? What happens when evolution moves from the natural world into the design studio?

With Night Lab II, we are shifting from “building around us” to “building within us”. The segment explores how synthetic biology and neuroscience are merging to augment human capability and perception.

The session focuses on the emerging territory where electronic skin meets neural interfaces, where conductive biomaterials become implantable bioelectronics, and where brain-computer interfaces begin to blur the line between prosthetics and perception itself. Materials become the medium of cognition.

Join us for a peek into the future of the human body.

NIGHT LAB III | ENHANCED PERFORMANCE (The Human Potential Frontiers)
Exploring how data, AI, materials, and neuroscience redefine human capability.

What if performance becomes programmable? How do intelligent materials, neurostimulation, and AI reshape the way we train, recover, and perform? What happens when human potential becomes a design challenge?

With Night Lab III, we shift from building within us to performing beyond our limits. The segment explore show AI, advanced materials, neuroscience, and wearable technologies are converging to redefine human performance.

Join us forthe rediscovery of human capability.

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Registration coming soon!