Design the future — together.

A free two-day festival opening up architecture and the built environment to the next generation — hands-on workshops, studio tours and live debate at the Royal College of Art.

Friday 9th & Saturday 10th October 2026

Hosted at the Royal College of Art, Battersea.

Free to attend

Book — Friday (Schools)

Book — Accelerate Debate

Book — Saturday (16+)

Book — Designing Better Futures

Young people taking part in a design workshop at Festival of the Future 2025.

Festival of the Future 2025 · Photo: Patrick Dempsey

Careers in design can feel out of reach — Festival of the Future exists to change that. Across two days at the Royal College of Art, young people and communities work alongside the architects, engineers, planners and civic organisations shaping our cities, discovering the many routes in and the power they have to shape the world around them. Following a first edition that welcomed over 2,000 young people to the RIBA in 2025, it's back for 2026 — free to attend, both days.

Festival Line Up

Industry: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), dMFK, DSDHA , Elliott Wood, Foster + Partners, Hawkins\Brown, HTA Design, Heyne Tillett Steel, Maccreanor Lavington, RSHP, Tibbalds, and ZHA.

Civic Organisations & Collectives: Archimake, Beyond the Box, Build the Way CIC, Deaf Architecture Front, EDIT, HomeGrown Plus, Mass Collective, MATT + FIONA, Open City Accelerate, POoR Collective, Royal Institute of British Architects, Thornton Education Trust, (to)scale.

Schools of Architecture: Architectural Association School of Architecture, London School of Architecture, Ravensbourne University, Royal College of Art, University of Westminster‍, London Metropolitan University, Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London.

Young people sitting at a table, drawing or coloring with markers and papers, in a brightly lit room with large windows, while others are standing and talking in the background.

Festival of the Future 2025 · Photo: Patrick Dempsey

How booking works

Festival of the Future runs as four free, separately-booked events:

Friday · Schools Day (11–16): booked by teachers, not individual students — book a place for your class and we'll assign your students to activities on the day.
Friday evening · Accelerate Debate: open to everyone — book an individual ticket.
Saturday · 16+: individuals book their own ticket, then explore the day freely.
Saturday evening · Designing Better Futures: open to everyone — book an individual ticket.

Day and evening are separate events — a day ticket doesn't include the evening, so if you want both, book both.

Friday · Schools Day

For secondary schools (ages 11–16)
A day of hands-on workshops with practising architects, engineers and designers. Teachers book a class — we build the timetable around your students.

Book — Friday (Schools)

Friday evening · Accelerate Debate

Open to everyone. Part of Accelerate Debates — our series scrutinising the issues shaping the built environment and education. This debate hands the floor to a panel of young people, tackling the real experiences and challenges of accessing and working in the sector, and finding common ground to move things forward.

Book — Accelerate Debate

Saturday · 16+

A-level, BTEC, T-Levels, degree & MA students, and recent grads
Studio tours, portfolio clinics, talks and workshops for the next generation of architects, designers and city-makers — plus the evening panel.

Book — Saturday (16+)

Saturday evening · Designing Better Futures

People. Place. Culture.

Open to everyone. Our festival finale — and a celebration of eight years of Beyond the Box. An evening of panels, music and networking, bringing together voices from practice, community and policy to ask what it really takes to build a better future.

Book — Designing Better Futures

Friday 9th · Schools Day

9.45am arrival and sign in · activities 10am–5.30pm · Evening debate from 6pm.

This image shows a wall covered with notes, photos, and papers pinned or taped in an organized manner, resembling a collection of inspiration or ideas.

How to Time Travel! — Architectural Association (AA)
From baroque to bonkers, explore how buildings reimagine the past. Collage, redraw and rethink London's details — and meet the AA's Accelerate programme for 16–18s.

Interior of a modern office building with large windows, nautical decor including a sailboat model and a large patterned sculpture, work desks, and people working and walking around.

Inside Foster + Partners: Studio Tour & Drawing Lab
Visit the newly renovated Foster + Partners studio, followed by a hands-on architectural drawing lab with the team — a curated experience for young designers at the festival.

People working on architectural models and designs at a table in an exhibition or workshop setting, with a wall displaying architecture photos and blueprints behind them.

Experience of the City — RSHP
Architect Jack Newton shares his journey — from growing up in London to landmark projects at home and abroad — and how creativity, teamwork and problem-solving shape our cities. He'll also explore the many routes into architecture, followed by a live Q&A.

A digital collage of futuristic cityscapes, architectural designs, animated characters, and virtual environments from a video game, featuring modern buildings, urban parks, and a central character holding a tablet.

Re:Imagine London — ZHA
Reimagine London's waterfront — in Fortnite. In this facilitator-led workshop with ZHA, work in teams to balance homes, nature, movement and public space, and build your own vision for a more vibrant city.

People sitting around a table working on a project with a small model structure, with one person holding a pen, in a classroom or workshop setting.

Paper Towers: Shape, Strength and Stability — Elliott Wood Can you build a paper tower strong enough to carry weight and survive the wind? In this hands-on engineering challenge, shape, fold and brace paper into towers — then test them under load and against a fan to discover how real buildings resist gravity, wind and everything in between.

Person holding a printed architectural rendering of an urban development with a bridge, public steps, and water features, featuring modern buildings in the background.

AI in Architecture: Creative Tool or Creative Threat? — AHMM
Watch your drawings transformed live by AI, hear how architects really use it day to day, and have your say in the debate: creative tool, or creative threat?

Group of six people wearing yellow safety vests in a warehouse, with trays of broken pottery or tiles on a table in front of them.

Recast — Hawkins\Brown + Build the Way
Meet the Build the Way trainees and their Recast showcase — crafted tiles made from reclaimed materials, and the story of a regenerative, alternative route into the profession.

A woman with braids working on a craft project with wooden sticks at a table, with other women in the background in a classroom or workshop setting.

Can You Build a Bridge? — Heyne Tillett Steel
Take on the Great Spaghetti Structure Challenge. Team up with real engineers to build a bridge that carries the heaviest load — and learn how structures actually stand up.

Close-up of a complex geometric white and brown pipe sculpture or structure indoors, with furniture and a window in the background.

Thinking Space — MATT + FIONA
Armed with nothing but recycled paper and tape, build a space to think in — working solo, in pairs and as a group to discover the quiet power of making together.

A young man wearing a blue shirt is working on a white architectural model, likely involving construction or design, indoors.

Two men building a wooden fence in a wooded outdoor area using logs and tools, surrounded by trees and foliage.

A Eutopia for All — RIBA
Imagine a city with no barriers — one everyone can enjoy, feel safe in and belong to. Drop in with RIBA to design and build your own truly inclusive city.

Building the Future: Architecture from Leftovers — London Metropolitan University‍ Turn leftovers into architecture. With London Met's School of Art, Architecture and Design, discover how discarded and reclaimed materials can be reimagined into something new — a hands-on, socially engaged take on designing for a more sustainable future.

Interior of a modern office or museum space with large windows, white columns, and people working at tables. Prominent yellow crane structure in the center.

Live Talk with Foster + Partners
Go inside one of the world's leading studios. Foster + Partners share how great design happens through collaboration, with time for your questions at the end.

A classroom or workshop with a diverse group of students sitting at tables, listening to a male instructor who is gesturing with his hands. The room has a modern design with wooden accents, colorful chairs, and various reading materials and supplies on the tables. The instructor is standing near a wall with display boards and a bright window providing natural light.

Playing Professionals — University of Westminster
Architecture is about far more than buildings. Step into different professional roles, tackle a live design brief, and discover the many careers a design education opens up.

A group of women gathered around a table, engaging in a discussion or activity. The setting appears to be indoors, possibly a community center or classroom, with books and decorative items in the background. The women are of diverse backgrounds and are paying close attention to the woman on the left, who is leading the activity.

Behind the Blueprint — dMFK Architects
What does it really take to become an architect? Demystify the routes in, then try it yourself — design a floor plan for a real scheme. Complete beginners very welcome.

Three women sit at a table with architectural models and drawings, engaged in discussion. One woman is writing, while the others observe.

Design Your Future: From Desk to Career — Ravensbourne University London
Can the objects on your desk shape your future? Sketch your ideal workspace, use AI to find your role models, and map real routes into built-environment careers.

Group of students wearing high-visibility yellow safety vests at a construction site outdoors, working on building a structure with wooden frames and tools.

Re-imagining Waste — DSDHA
Turn waste into wonder. Make your own earth tile from reclaimed offcuts and add it to a growing collective mosaic — a hands-on introduction to circular, sustainable design.

As the schools day closes, the festival opens up. The Open City Accelerate Debate is a free evening of live, honest conversation about the future of the built environment — and who gets to shape it. Real talk, big questions, and a drink in hand.

Open to everyone.

Friday evening · Open City Accelerate Debate

Group of eight diverse people sitting on stage engaging in panel discussion, with an audience in front, in a theater or auditorium setting.

Open City Accelerate Debate - Rethinking Recruitment 2025

Book — Accelerate Debate

Saturday 10th · 16+

Saturday: 9.45am arrival and sign in · activities 10am–5.30pm · Designing Better Futures from 6pm.

Group of five people sitting around a round table engaged in conversation in a room with bookshelves and ceiling lights.

Careers Beyond Architecture — (to)scale
An architecture degree opens more doors than you think. Meet people who've taken their skills into adjacent careers, and discover the many directions your training can take you.

People gathered around a table working on creative projects, with art supplies, papers, and sketches visible on the table.

Pass it On — London School of Architecture
Design your own ideal space, then hand it on. Work through a real design brief, inherit someone else's, and learn how architects read and build on each other's ideas.

A group of diverse people seated around a table, engaging in a collaborative activity, in a well-lit indoor space decorated with colorful wall art.

POoR Collective RCA Trailblazers: meet POoR Collective (Power Out of Restriction), award-winning RCA alumni putting young people at the heart of the built environment. Hear their journey from RCA to practice, then join a hands-on workshop in community-led design.

People drawing and coloring on large sheets of paper spread out on a table, including images of animals and trees, with various art supplies like markers, pens, and paper scattered around.

London 2050: Speculative Mapping — Architectural Association (AA)‍ ‍ Picture a fairer, greener, more vibrant London in 2050. Inspired by the sci-fi worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler, use creative mapping to reimagine your neighbourhood — then collage everyone's maps into one collective vision of the city that could be.

Interior of a modern office or public space with large windows, tall pillars, and several people working or walking around. A large yellow mechanical arm or scale is suspended from the ceiling.

Inside Foster + Partners — Studio Tour Step inside one of the world's leading studios. Take a guided tour of Foster + Partners and hear first-hand how one of the most celebrated practices around really works, thinks and designs.

Six women gathered outdoors in front of a brick wall, some sitting and some standing, laughing and talking together.

EDIT RCA Trailblazers: meet EDIT, a feminist architecture collective challenging the biases built into our spaces through design, research and exhibitions. Hear their story from RCA to practice, then explore co-design and inclusive making in a hands-on workshop.

A courtyard garden surrounded by red brick apartment buildings with multiple floors. The garden has lush green plants, trees, and flowers. There is a brick pathway with two people walking and a bench where another person is sitting. A red fire escape with balconies is attached to one of the buildings.

Fit for the Future — HTA Design How can housing meet the climate emergency? Drawing on projects like Sutton Estate, Hanham Hall and the Aylesbury Estate, HTA explore retrofit, regeneration and new-build — and how thoughtful design cuts carbon while improving how we live.

A group of diverse teenagers and young adults posing in front of a wooden structure inside a building.

Building Together — RIBA Youth Forum
Led by young people, for young people. Drop in to the RIBA Youth Forum for hands-on, creative activities exploring everything from social housing to accessible cities.

A man giving a presentation on Deaf Space diagrams to a group of people in a conference room with large windows.

Deaf Architecture Front RCA Trailblazers: meet Deaf Architecture Front, a Deaf-led practice embedding Deaf perspectives and DeafSpace principles into architecture and public space. Hear their journey, then join a workshop on inclusive design that works for everyone.

A group of people sitting on orange benches under a wooden pavilion, listening to a woman speaking at a panel. There are string lights above them, and an outdoor urban setting with trees and buildings in the background.

Designing Better Ways to Engage Young People — Thornton Education Trust
How do you design meaningful ways for young people to shape the places where they live? Take on a real design challenge drawn from Thornton Education Trust's research into how councils, architects and developers engage young people in the built environment. Map different approaches, then co-design practical tools that could help the industry do it better.

Fashion models in avant-garde outfits, with a backdrop of urban architecture and abstract geometric shapes, in a photoshoot setting.

GLAM: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Architecture & Me — HomeGrown Plus
Fashion meets architecture. Transform discarded materials into striking wearable design guided by circular-economy thinking — then bring it to life on a sustainable architecture catwalk.

Interior of a modern office or showroom with large windows, columns, and nautical decor including a large decorative ship model and a sailboat.

Foster + Partners — Talk & Portfolio Clinic An introduction to Foster + Partners — their collaborative approach and landmark projects — followed by a portfolio clinic and careers conversations, with one-to-one advice on university, portfolios and routes into the profession.

Exhibition of architectural design projects with posters on display, people viewing the designs, and a table with printed materials at an indoor event.

A young woman with curly hair and a bandana tied around her head, wearing a brown sweatshirt and loose gray jeans, standing inside near a large glass window, holding a camera to her eye.

Architectural Photography Taster Day — Mass Collective Find your eye for buildings and space. Join Mass Collective for a phone photography walk, and talks from emerging talent sharing insight into how they’re building their practice.

A group of diverse people are seated in a circle inside a bright, modern conference room with large windows. Some people are engaged in a discussion, and a couple are looking at a device or notes. There are chairs around, a camera set up in the background, and some plants and banners visible.

Who Makes the City? — Tibbalds Who really decides what your high street looks like, or where new homes get built? Go behind the scenes of how cities and towns really get made.

A group of young adults sitting around a large table in a bright studio, wearing headphones, working on architectural design projects with printed images, tablets, and small building models, with a city view visible through large windows.

'Silent Disco' Studio — Archimake Architecture, silent disco style. Scan the QR code, pop in your headphones and choose from a range of pre-recorded Archimake workshops, each guiding you through a real design task — then come together to draw and make. No set start or finish, so come and go, switch workshops and stay as long as you like. (Dancing permitted!)

Saturday evening · Designing Better Futures

People. Place. Culture.

Our festival finale lands on a special date — Beyond the Box's 8th birthday. Designing Better Futures brings community organisations, professionals and young people into one room for an evening of panels, film and networking: part honest conversation about who shapes the built environment, part celebration of eight years of doing it differently. A moment to reflect, connect and raise a glass — and one not to miss.

Open to everyone.

Who you'll hear from

Growing the Next Generation
Chaired by Sam El-Bahja — Architectural Designer, Writer & Artist; Co-founder, ISO Collective and Beyond the Box alumnus

Siraaj Mitha — Architect & Head of Open City Accelerate
Beth Hughes — Head of Programme, Architecture MA, Royal College of Art
Dhruv Gulabchande — Founder, Narrative Practice; Associate Director, HFM Architects
Barakat Omomayowa — Curator & Architectural Designer; Beyond the Box alumnus

Community as Collaborators
Chaired by Neil Onions Hon FRIBA (Founder & CEO, Beyond the Box), with:

Nouvella — Senior Policy Planner & Founder, The Urban Planher
María José Gonzales — Community Coordinator, Wards Corner CBS
Vicky Álvarez — Trader Representative & Board Member, Wards Corner CBS
Saba Shafi — CEO, The Advocacy Academy
Nabil Al-Kinani — Development Manager, Writer & Producer

Beyond Buildings: Protecting the Culture of Place
An intimate closing conversation on culture, creativity and community — with a special keynote guest to be announced, in conversation with two young architecture graduates and Beyond the Box alumni.

Plus music, a short film, and a drinks reception.

Saturday 10 October 2026 · from 6.00pm · Dyson Building, Hester Road, RCA Battersea

A crowded art gallery or exhibition with people mingling and observing artworks on the walls, illuminated by warm lighting and ceiling track lights.

Beyond the Box’s People’s Pavilion Exhibition 2023 · Photo: Kirin Sall

Book — Designing Better Futures

Plan your visit

Everything you need for a smooth day with us

Where

Royal College of Art, Battersea — Studio Building, Howie Street, London SW11 4AY (///shirts.mirror.pitch)

Friday 9 & Saturday 10 October 2026 · arrive 9.45am · activities 10am–5.30pm · evening events from 6pm

Daytime: come to the Studio Building, Howie Street.

Evening events: Dyson Building, Hester Road.

Please travel by public transport — no parking on site. Nearest bus stop Battersea Bridge / Hester Road (19, 49, 170, 319, 345); nearest Tube Battersea Power Station. Step-free access and accessible toilets throughout.

Questions? admin@beyondtheboxconsultants.com

Download the full guide - Plan your visit

A map of the RCA Battersea campus showing building locations and surrounding streets with labels for Hester Road, Howie Street, Battersea Bridge Road, Parkgate Road, and Ebol Street. Key buildings include the Studio Building, Dyson Building, Radstock Building, and Rausinga Building, with arrows indicating direction and icons for bus stops, cycle access, and information points.

About Festival of the Future

Festival of the Future is a two-day celebration of the built environment — and everyone's right to shape it. Created by Beyond the Box, it exists to open up architecture, design, engineering and the many careers around them to young people who too often find those doors closed.

Why we're here

We believe careers in design shouldn't depend on who you know or where you're from. The built environment belongs to everyone, yet the people who design our streets, homes and public spaces rarely reflect the communities who live in them. The festival is our answer: a space where young people don't just learn about the built environment — they help shape it.

Women participating in an indoor ceramics or clay modeling workshop, working with clay on a table.

Festival of the Future 2025 · Photo: Patrick Dempsey

The story so far

We launched Festival of the Future in 2025 at the Royal Institute of British Architects, where over 2,000 young people from across the UK stepped inside the profession for the first time. In 2026 we move to the Royal College of Art's Battersea campus — bigger, bolder and more collaborative than ever.

More than a careers fair

Over two days, young people work alongside practising architects, engineers, planners and the civic organisations doing the real work in communities — through hands-on workshops, studio tours, live debate and co-design. From world-renowned practices to civic collectives and schools of architecture, the whole sector comes together in one place, because opening up the profession takes all of us. We don't tick boxes. We listen, and we act.

A panel discussion with six seated speakers on stage, a large screen behind showing two article previews with titles about architecture and rebuilding Gaza. Audience members sit facing the stage in a wooden-paneled auditorium.

Festival of the Future 2025 · Photo: Patrick Dempsey

Who it's for

Friday is dedicated to secondary-school students (ages 11–16), booked in as classes. Saturday opens to 16+ — A-level, degree and MA students, and recent graduates. Our evening panel events are open to everyone.

The bigger picture

Festival of the Future is part of a national conversation about who gets to build our future. As the House of Lords Built Environment Committee has urged, engaging young people isn't a nice-to-have — it's how the sector grows the talent it needs. We believe the answer to that challenge isn't fewer routes into the profession, but more.

Who's behind it

Festival of the Future is created by Beyond the Box, a creative practice and community interest company working at the intersection of environment, culture and brands. Our purpose is simple: creating equity by design.