They have Watches, we have Time: Iskander Guetta and Quang Vinh Nguyen in conversation with WAI Think Tank

​During Archtober 2026, the waiting room of the Swiss Consulate will host an installation conceived by Iskander Guetta and Quang Vinh Nguyen revolving around notions of design, time, and power. The exhibition They have Watches, we have Time considers time as a material of design through one of its main instruments: the clock.

​Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski (Wai Architecture Think Tank) join the curators to expand on the questions the exhibition raises around design, time, and power. How does a single measure of time come to organize so much of the world, and what is lost when it does? What would it mean to treat time, rather than space, land, or property, as the primary resource of a design process? How can we engage with a design project in its entire timeline—from the time of extraction to the instant of demolition – and not exclusively at the moment of production and innovation?

​In short, how is time designed?

​Please join Van Alen in hosting the curators and WAI from 6-8pm for a conversation and reception.

​6:00pm — doors open, reception
6:30pm — conversation begins
7:30pm — Q&A, reception resumes
8:00pm — close