LFA and the Culture Mile Business Improvement District (BID) are pleased to introduce the shortlist for our Seeds in the City design competition. The competition invited emerging architects, designers, landscape architects and artists to reimagine a corner of the Barbican Estate through a temporary new community pavilion.
This opportunity, exclusively open to emerging creatives, enables smaller practices to engage with one of London’s most iconic architectural sites. The selected proposals were chosen by the judging panel for their commitment to engaging local organisations in meaningful and innovative ways, activating the site through ambitious programming, community engagement, and hands on workshops.
Formed as bold, multidisciplinary consortiums, the teams bring together expertise spanning horticulture, education, architecture, design fabrication, and engineering. Their proposals demonstrate thoughtful approaches to sustainability and present imaginative visions for strengthening connections between people, nature and growing food.
The final design will be installed on St Giles Terrace next to the City of London School for Girls (CLSG) and St Giles Cripplegate Church, and will contribute towards LFA2026 throughout June, hosting a programme of talks, workshops, and educational activities centring around food growing, sustainability, climate change and community wellbeing.
The initiative is also guided by Culture Mile BID’s Public Realm Vision and Strategy for the local area, of which Seeds in the City will help contribute towards. The project is also building on CLSG’s self-initiated urban farm, piloted this year with students and staff and supported by St. Giles Cripplegate Church and the City of London Corporation, furthering the collaboration across the parties.
The following four teams impressed the judges most, and will be invited to develop their proposals before a second round of judging:
Studio Folk with RASKL
Studio Folk is a collaborative architecture studio dedicated to context, craft, and sustainability. The practice is led by RIBAJ Rising Star Edward Powe, an architect and urban designer with broad experience in strategic placemaking and public realm projects, and Patrick O’Keeffe, an architect and former BSR Rome Fellow, who brings specialised expertise in public realm wayfinding design. Each member combines active architectural practice with teaching, fostering a reflective and research-led approach to design.
They have extensive personal experience working on public sector and community-led projects and are passionate about creating places deeply rooted in their local context through genuine collaboration. The group believe great places are made by many hands, regularly partnering with local artists, craftspeople, and fabricators to enrich our design and construction processes.
For Seeds in the City, Studio Folk are partnering with RASKL, a multidisciplinary design and build studio with an outstanding track record of delivering bold, high-quality furniture and public realm interventions.
“We’re very pleased to have been shortlisted for the Seeds in the City commission as part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture. Our practice is driven by projects that are informed by their context and developed through genuine collaboration, and this brief presents a meaningful opportunity to work within the iconic Barbican estate. We’re excited for the opportunity to develop our ideas in response to the brief, and to explore how the project can support shared learning, participation and a lasting sense of belonging, in response to this year’s LFA theme.”
See more on the team:
- Website www.studiofolkarchitects.com and www.raskl.co.uk
- Instagram @studiofolkarchitects and @rasklstudio
- LinkedIn Studio Folk Architects
TUFF
TUFF is a research and design group formed in 2025 by architects, artists and designers Eliza Collin, Rosa Whiteley, and Freya Spencer-Wood. Their work investigates themes of aftermath, working across climate, land politics, and ecology. TUFF employs an intersectional, site-specific and participatory approach to landscape and architectural prototypes that aim to keep differences intact.
For the Seeds In The City competition, TUFF are collaborating with designer and fabricator Martha McGuinn to realise the project.
“We are excited to be selected to expand our collective approach to water politics, aquifers and contamination through the design of participatory food spaces at the Barbican: a place where water, health and collectivity are already embedded in its landscapes.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @tuff__rdg and @marthmcguinn
Waterworks Collective
Dominic, Lana and Joseph met through their work on the East London Waterworks Park project – a charity campaigning to convert a 14-acre former reservoir into a community-owned biodiverse park. Together they are passionate about ecology and nature in our urban environments, and circularity of resources in the process of making architecture. Dominic and Joseph are practicing architects, and Lana is a civil engineer who is now based at Bristol Avon Rivers Trust.
“We are looking forward to bringing together our shared experience in ecology-driven community projects and our research on urban food growing to this project. The iconic site and its existing pockets of nature and growing initiatives provide an opportunity to create something unique and exciting.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @dom_walker and @josephpagetarchitect
Weva Collective
Weva are a collective of architects, artists and makers united by a commitment to creating opportunities for women, gender-diverse people and marginalised communities to confidently engage with construction, green skills and the building trades. They dismantle barriers with their design projects by skill-sharing, learning through making, and collective agency.
“United by our common ethos of women-led construction projects, we are delighted to be shortlisted for Seeds in the City, and excited to demonstrate how our ideas can activate local communities in this iconic location.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @_weva_collective
The winning team is set to be announced in late March, with the design team set to integrate their concept into #LFA2026, and are encouraged to treat the pavilion as a testing ground for new spatial, material and social ideas.
You can view more on the open call here.
