The Festival in 2010 will be a city-wide celebration of architecture in the capital.  All Londoners are invited to join the Festival community, to develop projects to take part in debates; to investigate ways that London can be made a better place to live, work and play; to explore the city through guided walks and bike rides and to examine change in the capital in a celebratory way.

Bankside Urban Forest will be one of the hubs and there will be plenty going on around our area:

Neo Bankside and the Tate Modern Sugar Sculpture! A model of Tate Modern and the Neo Bankside Towers, sculpted in sugar cubes. The installation will be on display at the Neo Bankside pavilion, just opposite the entrance to the Turbine Hall. The sculpture will be designed by Irish artist Brendan Jamison.

Bankside Urban Forest: This initiative will include a series of small projects and interventions to improve the public realm of the area between The Riverside and Elephant and Castle. Tree-planting groups and guerrilla gardeners for example!

City Hall/More London: VocalEyes Audio Described Architecture Tour and Workshop for Blind and Partially Sighted People. VocalEyes guided audio-described tour and workshop for blind and partially sighted people, describing the building, giving its history and telling its story. See lfa2010.org for booking details.

London Bridge Architecture Podwalk: Podwalk narrated by Edwin Heathcote in association with Team London Bridge and the Architecture Foundation, based in and around the London Bridge area. Just download and go. Available throughout LFA2010 and for the rest of the year.

The Urban Island Project, run by Space Pilots: The idea comes from a nationwide survey asking young people about the local environment and the improvements/interventions they would like to see put in place to improve their lives. 

Spaces will be created where youngsters can meet friends, play or even take part in outdoor theatre or performances. The Urban island team are piloting the project in Southwark as part of the festival and will be creating a complete London-Urban-Island map that can be downloaded from their website.

Exhibition & Foundation Stone Ceremony at Siobhan Davies Studios: Working in collaboration with Siobhan Davies Studios, students from the Royal College of Art MA Ceramics and Glass course will exhibit site specific work, reflecting the architecture, history and dance activities of the building throughout June.

On Saturday 19th June between 2pm and 5pm visitors will have the opportunity to tour the building and talk to the students about their work. The afternoon will culminate in a special ceremony to mark the installation of a foundation stone created by artist Laura Wilson with the building architect Sarah Wigglesworth.

Date: Saturday 19th June 2010
Time: Tour and Meet the Artists 2 – 5pm
Unveiling of Foundation Stone 5 – 5.30pm
Free Entry – No booking required
www.siobhandavies.com

HelsinkiHorizon: Finland is participating in this year's London Festival of Architecture with an exhibition titled Helsinki Horizon 2020. The exhibition launches a vivid Urban Pilot project and opens doors to Helsinki World Design Capital in 2012.

Helsinki is faced with changes on a magnitude that the city has not experienced for more than a century. With the development of the former harbour areas 15 km new public urban waterfront will be opened for common use and up to 50,000 new residents will be accommodated in premiere waterfront districts.
The exhibition is placed in a sea container with a large aerial view of the entire city of Helsinki and takes place at Southwark Cathedral Courtyard, London Bridge, SE1 9DA.

See www.lfa2010.org for more details and to get involved.