Open House Festival and London Design Festival Both Open 12 September

Two of London's biggest annual design and architecture events open on the same day this year. Open House Festival 2026, run by the charity Open City, runs from 12 to 20 September and marks its 35th year giving free public access to more than 800 buildings across every London borough. London Design Festival, now in its 24th edition, runs the same week, also 12 to 20 September.

Open House's programme for its 35th year includes the 40th anniversary opening of Richard Rogers' Lloyd's Building in the City of London, one of the most recognisable pieces of high tech architecture in the country and rarely open to casual visitors. This year's programme also features the first ever appearance of the Zaha Hadid Foundation archive, giving the public a look at material from one of the most influential architecture practices of the last few decades.

London Design Festival runs its usual spread of installations, talks and exhibitions across the city, with the V&A hosting two AI themed pieces worth seeking out. Playfool, the design studio known for playful, tech driven installations, has a new work in the programme, alongside a piece from Aziza Kaydri that combines traditional Uzbek embroidery with AI generated elements, a specific and unusual pairing of craft heritage and generative tools.

For anyone working in design, architecture or the wider creative industries in the UK, having both festivals open in the same week is a genuinely useful diary entry rather than a scheduling clash to complain about. Open House gives access to buildings and spaces that are normally closed to the public or require a professional reason to visit, while London Design Festival is where new product, installation and exhibition work gets shown first.

Both festivals are free to attend for the vast majority of their programme, though some Open House buildings require advance booking given limited capacity, particularly for popular sites like the Lloyd's Building. With both running 12 to 20 September, it is realistic to plan a single week that covers a good cross section of London's architecture and design output for the year.