We’re pleased to share the shortlisted design teams for the Find Fitzrovia design competition alongside The Fitzrovia Partnership. The competition is the next step in a multi-year initiative between the LFA and The Fitzrovia Partnership, following from the success of last year’s Fitz&Sits, and 2024’s Rabbit Warren Street.
After opening to emerging designers, architects and artists, the Find Fitzrovia competition invites ideas that reimagine Fitzrovia’s key gateways as welcoming landmarks, celebrating the area’s distinctive heritage, improving how people navigate and experience the neighbourhood, and encouraging greater exploration of its streets, culture and independent businesses.
In the first of two judging rounds, industry professionals came together to whittle down the entries to the six shortlisted teams. In this first round, judges noted the shortlisted teams as having firmly rooted concepts in the local area, upholding the foundations of Fitzrovia in their design principles and having developed a confident vision for the area.
Each team will now move on to a second round of judging, where experts will assess each proposal and decide on which entry will support the future wayfinding of Fitzrovia across the summer months.
You can see more details on the shortlisted teams below:
121 Collective and OleO
121 Collective and Studio OleO work as a collaborative design partnership across public realm, installation, architecture and making. Together, they explore how carefully crafted, human-scaled interventions can support orientation, pause, and encourage a sense of belonging within everyday urban environments. Their shared approach combines material-led making, participatory design and architectural rigour, developing projects through full-scale prototyping, collaboration with local stakeholders, and a strong focus on long-term use, adaptability and afterlife.
“We’re really pleased to be shortlisted. Our proposal, Fitz (U) In, approaches wayfinding as a generator of behaviour rather than a set of instructions — using moments of pause, movement and encounter to help people feel orientated, confident and curious. Building on our experience in Fitzrovia through The Junction, we’re interested in revealing overlooked streets, everyday stories and local character through a wayfinding system that feels embedded, lived-in and genuinely useful.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @121.Collective & @studio_oleo
- Website https://www.121collective.com
Adalberto Lonardi
Adalberto Lonardi Studio is a multidisciplinary art and design practice working at the intersection of urban architecture and public art, with a focus on collective authorship, spatial storytelling and social impact — by the community, for the community. Adalberto’s practice weaves culture, education and design across all ages and abilities. Working closely with architects, urban developers and community organisations, he builds bridges between people and places through memory and shared imagination. From the Venice Art Biennale to Kensington + Chelsea Art Week, and through collaborations with the Wimbledon Foundation, Italian Embassy, Foster + Partners and many others, Adalberto Lonardi continues to craft art and design that speak of community and connection across the UK, Europe and China.
“Find Fitzrovia provides artists and designers the opportunity to develop a creative vision that offers belonging and connection. We propose a family of circular hand-painted elements in collaboration with local schools and community groups in Fitzrovia.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @adalbertolonardi
- LinkedIn Adalberto Lonardi
- website www.adalbertolonardi.com
Andrada Calin and Olympia Katsarou
Andrada Calin is a Romanian-British architect, urban designer, and educator based in London, and founder of Andrada Calin Studio (est. 2025). She works at the intersection of architecture, art, and the public realm, alongside her role as a Senior Urban Designer at the London Borough of Hackney, where she leads planning policy design, produces design guidance, and advises on regeneration projects. Her practice focuses on installations, prototypes, and urban strategies, often using waste as both medium and message to prompt reflection on how we live, consume, and care for our shared environments.Her work has gained international recognition, including being shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize 2026.
Olympia Katsarou is an architect, multidisciplinary practitioner, founder of Olympéa Studio, and lecturer at Birmingham City University. Her work operates at the intersection of space, art and narrative. Her practice and pedagogy engage art practice and curation, adaptive reuse, and research-by-design methodologies, foregrounding spatial narrative as a critical tool for inquiry, storytelling, and community cohesion. Olympia’s work has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy and she has been shortlisted for the Architecture Venice Biennale.
Together, the duo combine community-led practice, research-driven storytelling, and hands-on delivery to create an inclusive wayfinding public realm project for Fitzrovia that celebrates its overlooked conditions and everyday stories, strengthening community identity and reimagining the area as an extroverted meeting point.
“We are incredibly proud to be shortlisted for the Find Fitzrovia competition in collaboration with the Fitzrovia Partnership and LFA and thrilled to bring meaningful transformation into such an interesting yet transient area of central London. Our project reflects on Fitzrovia as a melting pot of creative culture, independent businesses and everyday anti-heroes seen as a landscape of stories waiting to be revealed, sung, and celebrated. For us, the project enables material, spatial, and social experimentation through an extroverted intervention, where totems act as gateways of memory and belonging, connecting hidden narratives to contemporary life. We look forward to developing our vision and creating a meaningful and exemplary project for Fitzrovia and beyond.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @andradacalinstudio and @olympeaaastudio
- LinkedIn Andrada Calin and Olympia Katsarou
EGY and Art Street
EGY Design puts purpose back into engineering. Founded in response to fragmented, tick-box approaches to the built environment, the studio designs infrastructure as an integral part of the urban system. By combining water, landscape, mobility and social infrastructure into a single, cohesive response, EGY shapes multi-functional, nature-based solutions that shape how places function, adapt and are experienced. Prioritising collaboration, imagination and real-world impact, EGY delivers infrastructure that is rooted in place. With a deliberately small team, the studio brings decades of senior experience and strong technical and strategic thinking, creating an alchemy between disciplines that transforms complex constraints into resilient, generous outcomes.
Art Streets is a creative placemaking and community arts organisation dedicated to transforming public spaces and strengthening local communities through engaging art, events and collaborative projects. Rooted in the belief that creativity fosters connection and civic pride, the company specialises in designing and delivering place-relevant street art, festivals, workshops, and engagement programmes that spark participation, learning, and inclusive experiences.
“We’re delighted to be shortlisted for the Find Fitzrovia Open Call this year. Our proposal uses the idea of thread to express what connects Fitzrovia — its streets, its people and its everyday activity. Tying back to the theme of belonging, the design is woven through the neighbourhood, luring people away from the main thoroughfares and into the heart of Fitzrovia”.
See more on the team:
- LinkedIn EGY Design
- Website https://www.egydesign.co.uk/
POoR with support from RASKL
POoR is a socially minded design practice working at the intersection of architecture, art and community engagement. They collaborate closely with young people to create installations, small-scale architecture and public artworks that are rooted in lived experience and local stories. Their work is driven by a belief that meaningful places are shaped through collective making. By centring voices that are often overlooked, they use design as a tool for expression, empowerment and connection. Through hands-on workshops and co-creation, they create spaces that invite participation, spark dialogue and reflect the identities of the communities they belong to.
“We are deeply proud to have been shortlisted for the Find Fitzrovia competition. Shaping places is at the heart of our practice, and this opportunity speaks directly to what we strive to do. Our proposal seeks to give form to the often-unheard voices of the area, uncovering and celebrating the stories of local people that shape Fitzrovia’s character.”
See more on the team:
- Instagram @poor_collective
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 Find Fitzrovia, 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 delighted to be shortlisted for the Find Fitzrovia design competition by the LFA. As an emerging, collaborative practice, we seek out projects that allow us to work closely with local context, partners, and communities, developing craft-driven design responses that are both thoughtful and distinctive. Our proposal will focus on celebrating Fitzrovia’s unique character and identity to encourage new paths of exploration within this distinctive part of central London. We’re excited to continue refining our ideas in the next stage of the competition.”
See more on the team:
- Website www.studiofolkarchitects.com and www.raskl.co.uk
- Instagram @studiofolkarchitects and @rasklstudio
- LinkedIn Studio Folk Architects
With the winning team set to be announced next month, the installation will form part of this year’s London Festival of Architecture and help shape wayfinding across Fitzrovia for the coming Summer.
You can view more on the open call here.
