Beyond the Box - London Festival of Architecture
Co-Designing the Future: Embedding Young Voices in the Built Environment - at Zaha Hadid Architects.
Event Description
Set against the backdrop of Beyond the Box’s much-anticipated People’s Pavilion 2025, opening this summer at the William Morris Gallery, join us for this dynamic event that explores the transformative potential of co-design.
How can architecture and design practices move beyond tokenistic engagement to truly embed youth leadership and lived experience into the spaces we live, work, and play in?
This in-conversation session explores how the sector can embrace co-design as a powerful, authentic approach to creating places that reflect and respond to a new generation of thinkers, makers, and change-makers. It invites you into a vital conversation about the role of young people in shaping the built environment.
Speakers & Panelists:
Michelle Sin - Architect, Zara Hadid Architects
Nile Bridgeman – Architect, Writer and Co-founding director of Saqqra
Shirin Naveed – Architectural Assistant & Multi-disciplinary Creative
Akif Rahman – Aspiring Architectural Designer, Co-founder of Cor_Collective
Tomi Balogun – Architectural Student & People’s Pavilion 2023 Co-designer
Joshua Carnaje – Aspiring Young Designer; People’s Pavilion 2025 Co-designer
Sukhy Kaur – Aspiring Young Designer; People’s Pavilion 2025 Co-designer
Blessing Uzoh – Aspiring Young Designer; People’s Pavilion 2025 Co-designer
Chaired by:
Neil Onions – Director, Beyond the Box CIC
Yashneil Ramlall, Aspiring Engineer and People’s Pavilion 2025 Co-designer
Rooted in creativity, collaboration, and community voice, this series of events celebrates co-design as a driver for inclusion, imagination, and systemic change.
Spanning architecture, public space, and cultural institutions, each session brings together young people, industry professionals, and thought leaders to spotlight lived experience, bold ideas, and new approaches to shaping our world—together.
From conversation to provocation, join us as we explore what it truly means to design with, not for, and how we can co-create a more equitable, inspiring future.
Be part of the conversation. Be part of the change.