Architektūros fondas and the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in the UK are delighted to invite you on a speculative journey into our collective urban futures as part of the London Festival of Architecture.

This event will tackle collective imagination as a potential way to respond to recent spatial, social, ecological and other global challenges. In response to increasingly individualistic cultures collective imagination enables us to foster togetherness and diversity in our societies and in our cities. Significant urban changes are made possible by collectively sharing ideas on a local level. This event will kindle these collective imaginations by providing a stage for different speculative fabulations, stories that will hopefully spark an urge to imagine and discover what alternative futures are possible. Research into specific urban areas in London and Vilnius, which are currently facing  radical changes, were the starting point for developing tools for speculative fabulations in specific contexts and watching if they can overlap.  Our hybrid programme will include a radio broadcast featuring conversations, urban plays, field recordings and music from Vilnius and London and a performative tour in London’s Nine Elms. 

PROGRAMME

Radio broadcast

11:00 - 16:00 GMT+1

We begin with a digital radio event comprising performative talks, interviews and discussions related to speculative fabulations for our urban environments. The radio programme will be complemented by field recordings and musical inserts creating an audio experience to move your body and imagination.

The broadcast explores collective imagination as a primary matter, which shapes our common understanding and, consequently,  our environments. The programme is inspired by a range of projects organised by Architektūros fondas, which relate to urban collective imagination and includes  contributions from Sensing Urban Matter programme curator Viktorija Šiaulytė, ‘Regeneration [and its discontents]’ programme curator Tautvydas Urbelis, ‘Building Narratives’ programme curator Justinas Dudėnas together with artist Will Jennings and ‘Neo-futuristic Walks’ curators Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė with artists Kipras Dubauskas and Artūras Čertovas. The radio show will be produced and streamed by Palanga Street Radio.

Neo-futuristic Walks

15:00 GMT+1

Neo-futuristic Walks is a performative event, which portrays our cities as huge lively ecosystems where every individual is interdependent on another. By inviting us to walk the future of two urban contexts in London and Vilnius, it highlights the act of collective dreaming as a tool for re-enchanting our current relationship to the urban environment. During the walk we will explore the areas of Nine Elms, in Vauxhall, London and Naujininkai-Kirtimai in Vilnius and will speculate their futures. To join the free walk in Nine Elms please register here. Following registration more detailed information will be provided.

Neo-futuristic Walks has been conceived by spatial practitioners Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė and is an ongoing project of Architektūros fondas’ project Experiments’ Platform. This edition for the London Festival of Architecture was developed by an interdisciplinary group of students from different creative fields, based in London and Vilnius, and with sessions by artists Kipras Dubauskas and Will Jennings.

This event is organised by Architektūros fondas, one of the key institutions of architectural culture in Lithuania, in partnership with the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in the UK; the Lithuanian Culture Institute; the Lithuanian Council for Culture; Palanga Street Radio; and Sonic Vilnius.