Top UK Architecture Shows: This Winter

Top UK Architecture Shows: This Winter

Spanning prestigious awards, conceptual designs and powerful monuments, this season’s must-see architecture exhibitions examine how buildings shape our lives – on personal and global levels.

Living with Buildings, Wellcome Collection, London 

This show reveals how urban structures influence society’s health and well being through an interdisciplinary approach to curation. A testament to the innovations of humanity across science and architecture, it takes on elements of healing in a dialogue with the changing needs of city planning and global developments.  Until 4 March.

Beazley Designs of the Year, Design Museum, London

Highlighting ideas that deliver tangible change and expand perceptions, Beazley Designs of the Year demonstrates the discipline’s potential to offer meaningful solutions to global and local issues. Winners include Turner Prize nominees Forensic Architecture, whose work reveals miscarriages of justice and global war crimes through reconstruction. Until 6 January.

RIBA Stirling Prize Exhibition, RIBA North, Liverpool

The six buildings shortlisted for the renowned RIBA Stirling Prize demonstrate visionary design ideas from across the UK. Focusing on key issues of accessibility, sustainability and originality, the finalists including  Foster + Partners; Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev; Henley Halebrown; MUMA; Niall McLaughlin Architects and Waugh Thistleton Architects. Until 23 February.

David Adjaye: Making Memory, Design Museum, London

Asking the question: “How can architecture, rather than words, be used to tell stories?”, Design Museum explores the narrative function of monuments and memorials by Sir David Adjaye OBE. Looking at new and existing projects, it examines how these forms can be used to reflect on history, memory and record human lives. From 2 February.

Invisible Landscapes (Act II: Environment), Royal Academy of Arts, London

The second iteration of a three-part investigation into the impact of digital technologies, Act II reviews how design is changing in the 21st century. An installation by London-based strategic design studio Dark Matter Laboratories offers a model which foregrounds the social value of architecture, looking towards a more democratic urban environment. Until 20 January

Credits:
1. Jamie Fobert Architects, Tate St Ives, Cornwall. ©Hufton+Crow.
2. Living With Buildings: Health and Architecture, Wellcome Collection, 04 October 2018-03 March 2019.
3. Jamie Fobert Architects, Tate St Ives, Cornwall. ©Hufton+Crow.
4. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture © Brad Feinknopf.
5. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town. Heatherwick Studio.
6. The Royal Academy’s new Weston Bridge and Lovelace Courtyard © Simon Menges