The Woods Bagot London Studio took part in this year’s London Festival of Architecture (LFA), joining forces with our neighbours – the Year 6 children at All Soul’s CofE Primary School in Fitzrovia – to deliver an exhibition that reflected the LFA 2023 theme, #InCommon. 

Run by New London Architecture (NLA), the LFA is a month-long celebration of architecture and city-making, taking place every June across London. The Festival’s mission is to open up discussions around architecture, test new ideas and uncover and promote new talent.

Woods Bagot x All Soul’s Primary School 

When first developing the brief for our collaboration, the design team decided to look at the common interest many share – whether younger or older – the desire to all have better places to live, work and play in. To hone in on this idea, the designers worked with the students to think a bit more about their spaces – how would they want to improve their playground? How could this be improved as well for the next generation?

Two workshops took place in the first two weeks of June, at the start of the month-long Festival, bringing together W-B designers and the Year 6’s. The teams worked on ideas for their ideal playground space, showing them how an architect might try to establish these ideas on paper. Divided up into groups, each student brought bundles of enthusiasm and imagination to their project, sketching out their dream spaces, with guidance from the design team. 

The final step was up to team W-B, as the plans were taken back to the studio to make photo-realistic. Using ‘stable diffusion’ – a form of AI image generation – the team was able to bring the students’ visions to life. 

The London Studio then opened its doors to the students, their teachers & parents, and members of the public for a an exhibition in the reception space to showcase the final work. The exhibition was well attended, especially by the children, their parents and teachers – all of whom shared in a very exciting moment as it was the first chance for the students to see their designs in real life. 

Below is a slideslow of some of the before and after sketches and AI visuals – as well as some shots of the workshops & exhibition. To find out more, visit LFA.