For two days in October, the Royal College of Art in Battersea belonged to young people. More than 800 of them came through the doors — from Year 7s making their first model to graduates hunting for a way into the profession — to be told something the built environment too rarely says out loud: this is yours to shape.
Festival of the Future is Beyond the Box’s flagship free festival. It is a day of doing, not watching — not a careers fair, but a working floor where architects, engineers, planners, universities and civic collectives hand young people the tools, the space and the permission to design the places they live in. In 2026 it ran across two days and an evening, with Dezeen as media partner and the RCA as host.
Clockwise · UAL - Central St Martins, AHMM, Westminster University ·dFMK Architects, Heyne Tillet Steel, ZHA Architects, Photo: Patrick Dempsey.
About Festival of the Future
Friday was for schools: hundreds of 11–16-year-olds from across London, rotating through hands-on workshops led by the biggest names and smallest collectives in the sector. They built a Thinking Space from recycled paper with MATT+FIONA, raced to build spaghetti bridges with the engineers at Heyne Tillett Steel, and took on the structural challenge set by Evolve. They turned waste into new material with DSDHA, interrogated AI with AHMM, and re-imagined London with ZHA. They drew a life-size home across the floor with Central Saint Martins (UAL), stepped into professional roles with the University of Westminster, demystified the routes into practice with dMFK, and designed accessible cities for everyone with RIBA. Studios ran all day with the Architectural Association, HOK, RSHP, Elliott Wood, Ravensbourne University London and London Metropolitan University, with Foster + Partners, Hawkins\Brown, Build The Way and Maccreanor Lavington alongside. As the schools day wound down, the evening belonged to Open City Accelerate, whose debate handed the floor to young people for a sharp conversation on the future of the built environment — a fitting close to day one.
Why we're here
The built environment belongs to everyone, but too many young people never get to see themselves in it. For two days we closed that gap — handing the sector’s expertise straight to the young people usually kept at arm’s length from it, and keeping it free so cost never decided who got in.
Saturday — the doors open wider
Saturday opened to the public and the 16-plus crowd. Foster + Partners ran studio tours, a portfolio clinic and 1-2-1 sessions alongside HOK; RIBA built a collaborative city in Building Together; and the Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins (UAL), Tibbalds (Who Makes the City?) and The London School of Architecture (Pass It On) ran workshops through the day. Mass Collective led a photo walk and put its mentees on stage as mentors; Home Grown Plus, (to)scale and HTA Design took to the panels and talks; Who Has Collective and Archimake brought the energy — Archimake with a silent disco — and the RCA Trailblazers (POoR Collective, EDIT, Deaf Architecture Front and TET) showed the many routes in, with Hawkins\Brown and Build The Way alongside. The day launched the Dezeen School Show, putting student work from five universities in front of a global audience, before an evening ‘Friday night: the Accelerate debate’. Open City Accelerate handed the floor to young people for a sharp evening of debate on the future of the built environment.
Festival of the Future 2026 · Larry Bothchway for Open City · Photo: Patrick Dempsey
Festival of the Future 2026 · Foster + Partners · Photo: Patrick Dempsey
Festival of the Future 2026 · Home Grown Plus · Photo: Patrick Dempsey
The finale —Designing Better Futures
Saturday opened to the public and the 16-plus crowd. Foster + Partners ran studio tours, a portfolio clinic and 1-2-1 sessions alongside HOK; RIBA built a collaborative city in Building Together; and the Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins (UAL), Tibbalds (Who Makes the City?) and The London School of Architecture (Pass It On) ran workshops through the day. Mass Collective led a photo walk and put its mentees on stage as mentors; Home Grown Plus, (to)scale and HTA Design took to the panels and talks; Who Has Collective and Archimake brought the energy — Archimake with a silent disco — and the RCA Trailblazers (POoR Collective, EDIT, Deaf Architecture Front and TET) showed the many routes in, with Hawkins\Brown and Build The Way alongside. The day launched the Dezeen School Show, putting student work from five universities in front of a global audience.
Be part of the next one
Festival of the Future 2026 is a wrap — but the work doesn’t stop here. The impact report and festival film land soon. Sign up to be the first to see them, and to hear how you can take part in 2027 — whether you’re a young person, a school, or an organisation ready to open its doors.
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