The Architecture Foundation

A day-long festival exploring classical currents in contemporary culture featuring Marina Warner, Joseph Rykwert, Rosemary Hill, Pablo Bronstein and Craig Hamilton in the magnificent settings of Greenwich's Old Royal Naval College and Queen's House

Join the AF for an inspirational walking tour exploring the modernist icons of Camden and discover the revolutionary architects who transformed approaches to housing around the world.
North west London has been a laboratory for radical housing experiments since the early 19th century.
This new walk takes participants through the London Borough of Camden, formed from the historic boroughs of St Pancras, Holborn and Hampstead. We will see the products of the experimental 1960s... and 70s, under the leadership and drive of borough architect Sydney Cook and (not without tension) director of planning Bruno Schlaffenberg.
In an area sharply divided by wealth, Cook sought to fulfil the post war Labour ideal of well-managed council housing available to ‘the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer… the living tapestry of the mixed community.’ At its peak, over 30 per cent of housing in the UK was in the social sector.
Emerging from this exciting landscape came Local Authority architects critical of the post war modernist point and slab block (‘mixed’) developments and energised by the challenge of building low-rise, high-density estates. Not without criticism, the social housing they built during this period has become some of the most iconic 20th century housing in the world.
Influenced by post Georgian London vernacular, new domestic work – such as Leslie Martin and Patrick Hodgkinson’s Brunswick Centre, new international work by practices like Atelier 5, and literature such as Community and Privacy (by Alexander and Chermayeff), these architects stressed the importance of cultural continuity: a front door onto the street, a back garden for children to safely play in, and semi-private space for communities to thrive in.
At the forefront of this movement emerged the now-celebrated Neave Brown; followed closely by other prominent architects like Peter Tabori, Benson & Forsyth and Tom Kay.
We will meet outside Archway station and cross the border into the London Borough of Camden. We will visit a plethora of exemplar housing projects, including Highgate New Town / Stoneleigh Terrace by Tabori, Mansfield Road and Lamble Street by Benson & Forsyth, Haddo House by Robert Baillie, the masterplanned area formerly of Lismore Circus by Frederick McManus & Partners, Bacton Low Rise Estate by Karakusevic Carson Architects, Wood Field and Barn Field by Farquharson & McMorran, Winscombe Street and Fleet (now Dunboyne) Road Estate by Neave Brown, and finishing at the Lawn Road Flats (Isokon building) by Wells Coates.
You will be guided by practicing architects armed with the skills to bring this debate into the present day, introducing you to important buildings that are unforgettable seen together.
Within a climate of an accommodation crisis in London, rising homelessness and with the number of flats recently surpassing the number of houses (a gap set to increasingly widen), these precedents have never been more pertinent.
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Join the Architecture Foundation for a walking tour exploring Canary Wharf. Following 30 years of rapid development on the Isle of Dogs, London’s epic new financial quarter is embarking on its latest large-scale expansion.
Formerly a kennel for Henry VIII’s hunting hounds – the marshy Isle of Dogs was drained and transformed into an industrial landscape during the later nineteenth century. As London became the pre-eminent centre of global trade – the enormous West India, Mill...wall and Blackwall docks were carved into the terrain, kick-starting a legacy of innovative commercial architecture.
Containerisation in the late 1970s and the far eastern manufacturing boom then saw London’s former docks and waterside industries transformed into wasteland. Amid a national debate on its future, the vast ‘Docklands’ area stretching from the Tower of London to Tilbury was at one point destined for expansive low-rise housing and open park land.
By a stroke of chance however Credit Suisse and developer Olympia & York grasped its potential for a new financial district and the government of the day leapt on the opportunity for renewal. The island’s centuries of isolation ended when a new Docklands Light railway opened in 1987 and millions of pounds were poured into landscaping the ruined quays.
Scandinavian house builders were invited to deliver low cost homes for sale to workers and landmark developments such as CZWG’s Cascades shot up at record speeds.Fast forward to the present property boom and with the arrival of Crossrail a fresh wave of high-rise development is taking place, bringing new residential towers which promise to dwarf their waterfront predecessors.
Key schemes in this emerging landcape include Norman Foster’s new Crossrail station, HOK’s 67-storey Hertsmere House and Herzog and de Meuron’s Wood Wharf residential skyscraper. Investigate life and work in London’s high-tech, high-security financial utopia. Witness the layers of development and evaluate the latest plans for the island’s future.
The tour will last for two hours, beginning at West India Quay DLR, and ending at Canary Wharf Underground Station.
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Join the Architecture Foundation for a walking tour exploring the Olympic Park. Explore the legacy of London’s £9.3 billion Olympic Games and the revolutionary new district which replaced one of the East End’s most implacable industrial wastelands.
Step from the bohemian warehouse conversions of Hackney Wick into the bold infrastructure of a future city – with its very own ‘E20’ postcode – where the mid-ground buildings in every view have yet to be constructed. Wander through... the utopian parkland both empty and ready for future generations’ play, journey into the UK’s third largest shopping centre then descend into old Stratford and witness a community many warn is at risk of being divided.
Six years on from the London 2012 Olympic Games, Stratford remains one of the largest urban regeneration sites in the world. The event itself was a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for the architects, planners and engineers mobilised to deliver its environment. Now the many temporary structures which caught the world’s imagination have been cleared away and the slow process of building 10,000 new homes on vacant plots surrounding the visionary Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Velodrome has begun.
Once again some of our era’s finest built environment professionals have been engaged to draw up Stratford’s future. But in the ten years since being awarded the games London’s housing crisis has intensified and a new debate over the sharing of regeneration’s benefits has emerged. Stratford and the council-owned Carpenters Estate – formerly threatened with demolition to make way a new University College London campus – has been a lightening rod for dissatisfaction.
The ‘Focus E15’ occupation of a condemned council flat by homeless mothers caught international attention and made famous the Labour mayor of Newham, Robin Wales’s remark: ‘If you can’t afford to live in Newham, you can’t afford to live in Newham.’ Meanwhile the Olympic park’s industrial fringe has witnessed an artistic renaissance with a raft of new venues opening in Hackney Wick and the group which set up Sugar House Studios – Assemble – winning last year’s Turner Prize.
It is for all these reasons a landscape where the complex consequences of London’s increasingly popular ‘Doughnut’ region are most apparent. The tour will last for two hours, beginning at Hackney Wick Station, and ending at Stratford Regional Station.
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Discover how architects transformed London's Southbank into a landscape of creative energy and cultural vibrancy.
Hear how an industrial backwater was re-imagined as a waterfront recreational zone featuring some of the world's greatest civic and artistic institutions.
Share your thoughts on the Southbank's many architectural masterpieces and join like-minded others to debate how London is transforming...

Discover how the creative energy of architects transformed Westminster into an iconic landscape symbolizing the heart of Britain's monarchy and democracy.
Hear how centuries of cultural vibrancy and innovation created a globally-recognized ceremonial zone featuring some of the world's most iconic buildings
Share your thoughts on the area's many architectural masterpieces and join like-minded others to debate how London is transforming......

Discover how the creative energy of architects transformed the City of London into an iconic landscape symbolizing the heart of Britain's financial industries.
Hear how centuries of cultural vibrancy and commerce created a globally-recognized financial zone featuring some of the world's most iconic buildings
Share your thoughts on the area's many architectural masterpieces and join like-minded others to debate how London is transforming......

Join the Architecture Foundation for a walking tour exploring the Greenwich Peninsula. Discover the major schemes transforming this former industrial wasteland into London’s newest and most ambitious mixed-use district.
From mediaeval palace to Baroque masterpiece, Greenwich has been dramatically shaped by its inhabitants from the Romans to the present day. A landscape of architectural innovation, scientific discovery, education, entertainment and tourism – Greenwich is poise...d to embark on its grandest transformation yet.
Eighteen years after the turn of the Millennium plans have been approved for 15,000 new homes around the iconic Dome. Learn about the motionless waterfront quays in East Greenwich earmarked for London’s new cruise ship terminal and an eight hectare OMA masterplan, Morden Wharf.
Debate the latest proposals for the peninsula by Santiago Calatrava, Mole Architects, Adam Khan Architects, 6a Architects, David Kohn Architects and Architecture 00. Witness landmark schemes by RSHP, Foreign Office Architects, Marks Barfield Architects and Wilkinson Eyre.
Discuss the long-lost hopes of the new Millennium and the future of housing and small scale industry as London weathers the latest global storm. Find hidden fringe spaces for thought and imagination beneath the towering skyline of London’s newest financial district.
The tour will last for two hours, beginning and ending at North Greenwich Station.
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Benedetta Rogers and Thomas Randall-Page 's winning Antepavilion, AirDraft launched in style at Hoxton Docks. Thank you everyone who came. See you next year.
Party by JA Projects and Diddy's. Photos by Fred Tschepp

Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1971, the architect Marina Tabassum established her own practice in the city in 2005. Tabassum is best known as the designer of the Bait ur Rouf Mosque, a building for which she also acted as client, fundraiser and builder and which secured the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 and the Jameel Prize 5 in 2018.

RIBA Gold Medal winners, Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey will present a lecture in the Barbican Concert Hall on the thirtieth anniversary of their practice.
Sheila O'Donnell (1953) and John Tuomey (1954) met as students at University College Dublin and went on to establish O'Donnell Tuomey Architects in 1988. They have been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize on a record five occasions and received the RIBA Gold Medal, the world's most prestigious architecture prize, in 2014. Their projects include the Lyric Theatre in Belfast (2011), the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at the London School of Economics (2014), and the forthcoming expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.
The Architecture Foundation programmes Architecture on Stage in partnership with the Barbican Centre.

After screening 118 films and over 30 UK Premieres, in September the Architecture on Film season turns 10 years old. We'll celebrate with a double bill from master filmmaker Harun Farocki, showing his works Sauerbruch Hutton Architects and Counter Music on 19 September. A date for the diaries. Tickets on sale now.
https://www.facebook.com/events/146613050 6866786

Continuing the Autumn series of Architects on Stage, Jaume Mayol, Irene Pérez, of the Spanish firm TEd'A arquitectes will speak about their recent projects.
TEd'A is an architectural practice based in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, who have been gaining a reputation for their homes and schools in recent years. Award-winning projects include Jaime and Isabelle's Home (2011), Can Picafort (2013) and School in Orsonnens (2014).
Image: Can Picafort Apartments
... Architecture on Stage is a programme of talks by the world's leading architects presented by The Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Barbican Centre.
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The first in the Autumn season of Architecture on Stage is a lecture by Swiss architect Pascal Flammer.
After working for Valerio Olgiati for a number of years, Pascal Flammer set up his own practice in 20015. Since then, his Zurich based practice, has developed a number of award-winning designs for houses including House with Two Rooms in Balsthal (2014) and House with a View on the Isle of Skye (2013).
Flammer has also held teaching positions at Mendrisio and GSD Harvard,... and more recently has been a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton and ETH Zurich.
Image: House in Balsthal 2011, photo Ioana Marinescu
Architecture on Stage is a programme of talks by the world's leading architects presented by The Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Barbican Centre.
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What happens when eight rising star architects come together to design 16 separate buildings for young art and design businesses? Find out in our Greenwich Peninsula walking tour this Sunday...

Join the debate over the Stirling Prize shortlist -- including Foster + Partners Bloomberg HQ -- in our City of London walking tour on Saturday...

Discover the extraordinary layers of architectural history behind the towering composition of the Square Mile in our next exper-led tour this Saturday...