The London Festival of Architecture will be taking place in June, with events and activities happening across London — many of which have been organised by the School of Architecture + Cities.
The festival serves as a platform for architects, designers and enthusiasts to engage in a series of exhibitions, installations, talks, tours and workshops. This year’s theme is ‘in common’, and the activities happening at the School of Architecture + Cities largely echo this topic.
Programme of events involving the School of Architecture + Cities
Therapeutic Horticultural Pavilion – 3 June 2023, 11:00am–1:00pm
Location: Cody Dock, 11c South Cres, London E16 4TL
Students and colleagues from Westminster have designed and built a QHT-funded Therapeutic Horticulture Centre in collaboration with Cody Dock, OfCA and WebbYates Engineers.
The pavilion is designed as a lightweight timber structure with a butterfly roof and demonstrates that plants and humans can happily co-exist in one space. We introduce new ways of working collaboratively across sectors, taking our multidisciplinary skills within academia and using these in live projects to serve communities and have a positive impact on society.
Drawing Attention: Architecture in the Age of Social Media – 8 June 2023 6:45–7:45pm
Location: Marylebone Campus, MG14
Drawing Attention — Architecture in the Age of Social Media by Hamza Shaikh is a new book published by RIBA that provides practical drawing guidance from leading figures around the world.
Join Hamza Shaikh for an in-depth dive into the journey of writing his book and understanding the exciting but unknown future of architects in the age of social media.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for Drawing Attention event.
Common Place – 13 June 2023, 6–8pm
Location: Marylebone Campus
At this event, five speakers explore personal and embodied experiences of domestic and leisure places. We journey beyond the materiality of these places and reflect upon meanings, dreams, practices and memories. We invite you to explore the ‘so much more’ associated with the places that you encounter every day.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for Common Place event.
Fragile Brutalism: Notions of home and loss in times of war and peace – 13–28 June, 10:00am–6pm
Location: Stephen Taylor Architects, 23-29 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1 5SF
"Fragile Brutalism" is a homage to the Ukrainian modernist prefabricated buildings known as "panelki", whose destruction has become a haunting symbol of the brutality endured by civilians in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Dasha Podoltseva and Elena Orap first engaged with panelki to rehabilitate them after they had fallen into disrepute due to their brutalist appearance and Soviet-era origins. Responding to the war, they now explore the fragility of these buildings that they, and with them millions of Ukrainians, call or have called home.
Please note: access to the work is only possible between 10am and 6pm and only on weekdays.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for Fragile Brutalism event.
(Un)Common trajectories: Post-war modernist housing in Ukraine and the UK. Past I War I Future – 13 June 2023, 6–9pm
Location: Stephen Taylor Architects, 23-29 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1 5SF
This event is linked to and acts as a vernissage for the exhibition “Fragile Brutalism”, which is mentioned above. Following an introduction to the exhibition, it will explore the shared and divergent experiences of modernist (social) housing in the UK and Ukraine, including its history, present and possible future(s), featuring Jane Pavitt (Zaha Hadid Foundation), Michael Romyn (Queen Mary University of London), Stephen Taylor Architects and other guests).
Notions of home and loss in times of war and peace – 15 June 2023, 6–9pm
Location: Stephen Taylor Architects, 23-29 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1 5SF
This event is also in conjunction with the London Festival of Architecture’s "Fragile Brutalism" exhibition about the 'panelki' in Ukraine.
The concept of home and the longing for it may be almost universal, but our desires and ideas about it are not. They vary according to place and time and personal preferences. In an informal setting with Ukrainian music and food, this event will use the exhibition not only as an opportunity to reflect on what is happening in Ukraine, but also to invite Londoners and Ukrainians, along with anyone interested, to explore together what “home” means, what it means to be confronted with the reality or threat of its loss, and what we share in terms of our notions of it and where we diverge.
OPEN 2023 – 15–30 June, launching at 6:30pm on Thursday 15 and open daily 9:00am–5:00pm until 30 June
Location: Marylebone campus – 4th- and 5th-floor studios
OPEN 2023 is a hybrid exhibition of projects that reflect the varied design approaches of our School of Architecture + Cities, its diverse students, and their place at the heart of London.
The show celebrates the openness and diversity of Westminster’s Architecture and Design students and includes an extensive range of creative student work.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for OPEN 23.
Sharing Open Space – 15–30 June, 10:00am–6:00pm
Location: The Learning Platform, Ground Floor, Marylebone Campus
This exhibition aims to promote what a truly inclusive public park might be to potential investors or stakeholders. It showcases the creativity of students in the MA Urban Design course at the School of Architecture + Cities.
The Common Stream, 23 June 2023 – 3–6pm
Location: Bromley-by-Bow Underground Station, E3 3JJ
On this walk from Bromley-by-Bow to Cody Dock along the River Lea, we open a conversation about how bodies of water enact their common presence, raising provocations to be discussed as we walk.
The walk will be jointly led by Corinna Dean, Lindsay Bremner, Stroma Cole and Paolo Zaide, all from the University of Westminster School of Architecture + Cities.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for Common Stream event.
Re-Imagining Coral Reefs – 28–30 June, 10am–7pm
Location: Marylebone Campus, MG28
Re-imagining Coral Reefs is a virtual reality (VR) experience aimed at communicating the climate science of coral reef research to a wider audience.
Visitors to the event venue are invited to try on VR headsets and experience healthy, degraded and re-imagined coral reefs from both human and non-human perspectives. Their virtual experiences are projected in real-time in the event space, which also contains 3D-printed models of the virtual corals they're experiencing.
Find out more and book your placeGo to booking page for Re-imagining Coral Reefs event.
Off-Grid Communities: The OHP Project – 29 June 2023, 5–7pm
Location: Marylebone Campus
The Off-grid Housing Prototypes (OHP) project aims to involve UoW students from different backgrounds in developing concrete solutions for the global climatic and energy crisis. This will generate an innovative knowledge transfer and learning-by-doing platform where students will be asked to co-create and self-build a series of off-grid and affordable housing prototypes for different social and climatic contexts.
