5 Must-See Architecture Events This Month: From Urban Films to Site-Specific Installations

In the last month of summer 2025, 5 must-see events in contemporary architecture and design held from London to Los Angeles that will captivate you! Don’t miss these 5 architecture events this month, focusing on contemporary architectural issues and cultural contexts and highlighting themes such as surveillance, sustainability, social connection, and modernist heritage and more. The events and exhibitions that can be experienced in cities with fascinating architecture have been compiled for you in the rest of the article. In these selected events, interaction and participation are at the forefront. Some events are interactive experiences, others focus on artistic observation, and others include interdisciplinary meetings.

1. Architecture Film Festival London 2025 – London (August 9–13)

First event hold in London between 9-13th August is an architecture film festival. Architecture Film Festival London integrates architecture and cinema each year, the festival will be held on London’s Barbican Centre & surrounding cinemas. This year’s theme, “Transformations,” cinematographically explores topics such as urban change, dwelling crisis, climate change, and demolition. The festival explores architecture not only as a building, it shows architecture as a cultural and social production via cinema. If you’re interested in the relationship between design, architecture, and media, you’ll enjoy this event along with the talks and discussions following the films.

2. Trade Safe Chastity Box – Los Angeles (August 7 – October 2)

Trade Safe Chastity Box is an interactive architectural installation located at the Materials & Applications Storefront that reverses the theme of “surveillance in Los Angeles. The artwork offers an experiential and politically charged architectural approach that challenges surveillance culture. An interesting work to experience the relationship between architecture and other design principles and today’s developing imaging and camera systems. You can visit the Materials and Applications Storefront from August 7th to October 2nd.

3. Exhibit Columbus 2025: “Yes And” – Columbus, Indiana (August 15 – November 30)

The event features 13 new site-responsive installations featuring original creations created through collaborations across architecture, art, and community. This free event, which blends the city’s architectural and cultural fabric, will be a delight for urban designers and architects. Explore the relationship between modern design and local community through interactive tours, talks, and festivals in Columbus from August 15 to November 30.

4. Seattle Design Festival 2025 – Seattle (August 16–21)

The fourth event, the Seattle Design Festival, is in its sixth season with the theme “FEEDBACK.” The six-day festival in Seattle will feature large-scale installations, performances, and interactive experiences. An event that aligns with every design principle, from public space design to equitable design, and offers thought-provoking dialogue awaits you.

5. LongHouse Landscape Legends / Modernist Landscapes – East Hampton (August 16)

The final event is a daylong symposium bringing together modernist architects and garden designers in LongHouse’s 16-acre sculpture and landscape garden. This visionary symposium will explore the relationship between gardens and architecture, focusing on some of the most prominent and important figures in architecture, including Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Kahn. The event offers an aesthetic experience within an academic-cultural framework, focusing on nature and modernism especially for architects, landscape architects, and urban designers.

Taking your time to architecture and design events, which are constantly nourishing sources of current architectural production and design, will contribute to your professional career and inspiration. These all events, installations, exhibitions, daylong symposiums, and workshops, from small to large, await visitors in August.