London Festival of Architecture 2012

The UK’s largest celebration of buildings and the city, the London Festival of Architecture (LFA), will return from 23 June – 8 July 2012. The event, held biennially since 2004, will reinforce London’s reputation as an international creative hub, as a varied programme of exciting events take place all over the capital. As potential medal winners limber up for their Olympic and Paralympic moment, the theme of the London Festival of Architecture in 2012 will be the ‘Playful City’, proposing ways in which both Londoners and visitors can use the city and its buildings in a more creative, interactive and healthy way. From reinterpreting familiar places through new installations and animations and redesigning public spaces to encourage physical fitness, to testing new ways of planning future urban development, Festival participants will be encouraged to play in, and play with the city around them. Organised by four leading architectural and cultural institutions, The Architecture Foundation, the British Council, New London Architecture and RIBA London, and sponsored by Land Securities, the city-wide Festival will focus on three London areas over three weekends: City and Southwark (23-24 June), Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury (30 June-1 July), and King’s Cross and Hoxton (7-8 July). Throughout the Festival the Royal Docks in East London will also be transformed into ‘London's Pleasure Gardens’, next to the Olympic venue at ExCel, with other events such as architects’ open studios and special exhibitions taking place across the city. London Festival of Architecture 2012