LFA 2023 kicks off, celebrating togetherness and common ground

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2023 kicks off today (1 June 2023), launching its month-long celebration of the built environment and all things city- and building-focused. The annual festivity, a landmark in the capital's cultural calendar, is centred this year on the theme 'In common'. This is an LFA edition about sharing, common ground and togetherness – and the city, any city, is a good example of spaces where this approach can manifest itself. A plethora of events and activities, from exhibitions, one-off installations and tours, to talks and discussions, populates the ever-growing programme of the much-loved festival. Scroll down, for our highlights. 

LFA 2023: THE HIGHLIGHTS

Common Grounds: The Opportunities and Challenges of Community-Led Development

Join Hastings Commons and the London Interdisciplinary School as they celebrate community-led regeneration with a talk featuring some of the capital's most active architecture studios in the field. IF_DO, Archio and Assemble are going to share experiences and discuss sustainable communities and their future, in London, and beyond. 

13 June

The Architect Has Left The Building

What happens after a project's delivery? When the architecture team steps back, and life takes over? It's exactly this that photographer Jim Stephenson and artists Sofia Kathryn Smith and Simon James are exploring in their immersive showcase that opens at the RIBA this week. The exhibition, featuring recent projects by Grafton Architects, Henley Halebrown, Carmody Groarke, Jamie Fobert Architects and more, blends expert photography and film to highlight how users populate and use buildings. 'We wanted to celebrate film’s capacity to show the power of the building,' said curator Pete Collard at the opening. 'The documentation of architecture has a long history of omitting people,' Stephenson adds. 'I’m seeing architecture as a backdrop. I think the film [on display] is a reflection of the way we work. It’s all about capturing the little everyday interactions, making connections.' On top of its topic, which is beautifully aligned with LFA 2023's overall theme, the show also reuses the installation structure from the previous RIBA exhibition on site – Long Life, Low Energy.

3 June -12 August 

British Cooling Towers – Sculptural Giants

Margaret Howell in association with the Twentieth Century Society (C20) is launching an exhibition at the brand's space on Wigmore Street, focusing on the historic legacy of industrial cooling towers. Bold, beautiful and brutalist, these architectural elements have had a powerful impact on the British landscape – and this show aims to celebrate and discuss it, as C20 is undertaking a campaign to raise awareness of the immediate threat British cooling towers face. 

3 – 18 June

Seats at the Table

Organised by Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and located at Postman's Park, this LFA 2023 entry consists of a series of installations – co-designed with disabled and non-disabled artists and architects, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and mainstream schools, as well as makers from The Bartlett, UCL Here East – and a programme of events. Discussing issues around accessibility in public spaces, the piece considers street furniture – and there's even a table design, which visitors can use.

2 – 30 June

Deaf Architecture Front launches at RIBA

Accessibility is the key theme in this event too – although with a different focus. Architectural designer and activist Chris Laing officially launches Deaf Architecture Front at the RIBA during LFA 2023. His is a campaigning platform and collective aiming to unite the Deaf community and the architecture world and wider built environment industry. The launch event features a panel discussion featuring Zetteler founder Sabine.

6 June

Climate Migrants: Self-reliant communities after natural disasters

RIBA Gold Medal 2023 winner Yasmeen Lari is delivering a keynote speech as part of the Ecocity World Summit 2023. The humanitarian architect is going to delve into a discussion around climate refugees, sanitation infrastructure, and community facilities in today's climate emergency. How can a community and its architecture resist climate disasters? The talk is going to be followed by a conversation with Professor Hanif Kara OBE, co-Founder and design director, AKT II. 

8 June

Penge and Palace trail

Did you know there are dinosaurs in Crystal Palace? Tours and trails are a staple of the London Festival of Architecture every year, and this is no different. The Penge and Palace trail is one of them, allowing visitors to explore the unique part of London that is Crystal Palace. ‘“Penge” is one of the few Celtic place names to be found in London. Believed to mean the 'edge of wood' the name refers to the fact that the surrounding area was once covered in a forest. Today, Penge sits on the south edge of Bromley’s largest greenspace, Crystal Palace Park. With a long and rich history, the development of Penge is intimately linked to the arrival of the Crystal Palace Exhibition building in 1854, whose legacy and design innovation can be seen today in the surrounding creative communities,' write the event's organisers. You can download the trail map from the LFA 2023 website, and one of the stops includes indeed visiting Crystal Palace Park, and its 1854 dinosaur sculpture display. 

1 June – 31 August

OFF-Grid by Richard Chivers

Artist Gareth Gardner's gallery presents OFF-Grid, showing a series of photographs by Richard Chivers focusing on the nation's 'disappearing gas holders.' Chivers' work on the industrial architectural icons has never been exhibited before, and here visitors can experience both colour and black and white visuals in an enticing mix. 'My dad used to work on the Gas Holders so I always held a bit of a fascination for them,’ said Chivers. He was prompted into action after reading an article in a newspaper about their imminent demolition. I love industrial architecture and find the gas holders with their lattice steel frames visually really interesting. The fact that the structures were a massive part of the UK skyline for years and had become landmarks for people was also intriguing.'

16 June - 7 July

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