‘Belonging’ – the LFA 2026 theme is revealed, exploring how places can become personal

'Belonging is when a street, a scent, or a skyline becomes part of your own story – when the place begins to feel personal. It’s that alchemy between memory and space, where your narrative aligns with the shared life of a place,' says Tanisha Raffiuddin, a member of the curation panel for the 2026 London Festival of Architecture (LFA).

The annual celebration of the built environment in the UK capital has just announced its return for 2026 with a new theme: 'Belonging'. Running every June, the highly anticipated event spans the entire metropolis and is the biggest festival centred on architecture in the country. Bringing a new central topic to the fore each year, it is a powerful pulse-taker of the industry's movements and considerations.

'Belonging': the theme for the 2026 London Festival of Architecture

Each year's theme is selected by a dedicated Curation Panel, including key figures from across the built environment and beyond. For 2026, the panel comprises Black Females in Architecture (Neba and Selasi); urban designer and place-shaping consultant Rumi Bose; Co-founder of IF_DO and IF/ Design Labs Thomas Bryans; head of the Design Unit at the Greater London Authority Sarah Considine; founder of Grow to Know Tayshan Hayden-Smith; and founder and creative director of Concept Culture Tanisha Raffiuddin.

Regarding the selection of 'Belonging' as a notion to centre LFA 2026, Raffiuddin continues: 'As migration, digital connection, climate change and new modes of living challenge urban rhythms, belonging becomes the emotional infrastructure of a place. It draws attention to how we build not just structures, but the conditions for people to feel rooted, recognised, and included.

'In this moment of accelerating development, climate crisis, algorithmic design, cultural dislocation, and systemic inequities, the theme of belonging is urgent. Progress without belonging too often erases people. Embedding equity, presence, and empathy into the blueprint of our places reframes success – not by what we build, but by who feels they belong within it.'

The panel and LFA director Rosa Rogina pondered ideas of belonging in their theme announcement essay, highlighting the 'times of stark contrasts' we live in. Their thoughts explore how architecture and city building, and planning have always required collective agency and a sense of collaboration. Within these concepts, the questions of who belongs, where and how become critical.

It is those ideas that the festival participants will be called to explore. Past themes have included 'Voices' (2025), 'Reimagine' (2024) and 'In Common' (2023).

Rogina says: 'Each year the festival’s theme is developed through a collaborative process with our Curation Panel, a diverse group of voices from across and beyond the built environment, to ensure it reflects the key urgencies of our time while remaining open and inclusive. We look for a theme that can spark critical conversations while also inviting optimism and imagination. This year’s theme, “Belonging”, responds to the pressures facing London’s communities, from displacement and inequality to shrinking public space, and positions the festival as a platform for hope, collective acts of care, and action.'

londonfestivalofarchitecture.org