The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) is back for a month-long celebration this June. Taking place every year across the city of London, we always look forward to the festival.
LFA is one of the most unique and inspiring ways to celebrate the world of architecture. It is undoubtedly a hub to discover innovative ideas, recognise up and coming talent, and delve into discussions with enthusiastic architects and designers.
Who is the festival for?
The festival is designed for anyone with an interest or passion for design. What makes LFA great is that it is inclusive and anyone from the public is welcome to attend. Of course, the festival attracts many architects, designers, and engineers too.
The festival is widely attended and typically attracts over 500,000 people across 400 plus events, making it one of the biggest events of its kind in the world.
What can you expect?
Taking place from Thursday the 1st of June across 30 consecutive days, you’ll find a full programme of events on offer across the LFA destinations.
Each annual LFA is given a different theme and for 2023 the theme is ‘In Common’. Each individual event at LFA is different, with some installations attracting thousands of people and more specialist workshops welcoming just a handful of people. You can expect a breadth of diversity of designs and installations ready for you to explore.
Design Destinations
LFA will take place across the chosen festival destinations in the most architecturally recognised areas, including:
Barnet
Brixton
City of London
Clerkenwell and Holborn
Penge and Palace
Royal Docks
South Westminster
What if you can’t make it to London in June?
With a mission to get everyone in the industry involved, many festival activities will also be hosted online for anyone unable to attend in person.
Curators Picks
Each year the LFA partner with a dedicated curation panel to curate the festival theme and agenda. The 2023 panel includes influential industry leaders from across the built environment. The panel have carefully selected their top ‘curator picks’ from this year’s festival programme. Curations that caught our attention include:
The Lego Big Street – Barnet Libraries will challenge you to design a build a community building, home, garden or any structure that reflects the festival theme. The challenge is that you must build this out of Lego. This is an opportunity to dig deep into your imagination of design here.
Making green and thriving neighbourhoods happen across London – Arup Architecture will welcome you to engage in conversations surrounding improving urban spaces. You can expect debate on how designers should cultivate urban spaces and make them accessible places to meet the needs of our local, diverse communities. Join the discussion at Arup Auditorium here.
The Architect has left the building – to reflect the festival theme of ‘In Common’, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has commissioned a cinematic series to display the ways people use architecture when left to their own devices. Uncover more and take your seat at the dual-screen film installation here.
Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation 2023 – returning for the fifth year, you’ll hear from new voices in the industry as they share their insightful manifestos. Organised by the Design Museum this is an opportunity to explore what the future could look like for architecture and what London holds for us in years to come. Join the emerging voices in architecture here.
Studio Lates
Studio Lates will give you exclusive behind the scenes access to London’s most reputable architecture and design practices. Architects will welcome you and members of the public into their studios, allowing you to get a glimpse of new architecture and designs in progress.
If you want to learn, get inspired and find out more about London’s architecture, the Studio Late sessions are a must attend. Sessions will take place on the first four Fridays in June in the following locations:
Shoreditch and Cambridge Heath – Friday 2nd June
Southbank – Friday 9th June
Clerkenwell – Friday 16th June
Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury – Friday 23rd June
What next?
Our dedicated and expert Architecture Recruitment team are excited to be in attendance.
We will be attending the locations across June, and networking with industry professionals also in attendance.
We'd love to meet up, so please do get in contact and arrange a meeting in advance.
