2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the London Festival of Architecture. For 20 years, the Festival has been delivering a rich cultural programme across London’s neighbourhoods with a series of installations, exhibitions, workshops, talks and special events which bring together the public and the industry.
In addition to expanding who engages with conversations around city-making – with over 1 million people engaged in 2023 alone – the Festival provides a test bed for new ideas and creative solutions for problems across the city, with temporary reimagining of public space during the festival leading to long term positive change for communities.
The London Festival of Architecture has a long history of supporting emerging designers, often providing a platform from which careers are launched, notable examples include Yinka Ilori’s Colour Palace for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in the summer of 2019.
As it celebrates its 20th anniversary under the theme of ‘Reimagine’, LFA2024 will expand on its mission to create space for knowledge-sharing and exploration, offering a platform to test new ideas and acting as a catalyst for change where the temporary informs the future and where projects consider social impact from the start.
Building on the theme, the Festival is calling for events that put people at the heart of the city and reimagine public spaces. Throughout June, engaging events will rethink our spaces and how they are used, from closing streets, hosting street parties, delivering workshops, performances and many more creative solutions; public spaces across London will be temporarily reimagined to capture the public’s imagination and inform long term meaningful changes.
Anyone with a passion for architecture and the built environment can propose a project or event to feature in the festival’s programme, the ‘open call’ model aims to democratise the discussion around architecture in London.
Those wishing to propose an event have until 8 March 2024 to submit at londonfestivalofarchitecture.org.
As part of the celebrations in June, NLA and LFA will launch a special retrospective publication that looks back at the tangible moments where the London Festival of Architecture has shaped a better city, through engagements with Londoners at local and city-wide levels. The research will look back at the stories of people, places and partnerships that empowered growing festival folks to shape their city for the better.
