The biennial London Festival of Architecture 2008 has come to a close after a month that saw a buzz of activity move through five Hub areas across the city, bringing large scale temporary structures and major street closures animated by art, music, dance and other events as well as exhibitions, walks, talks, boat and bicycle rides and performances to London’s architecture novices and industry experts alike.

  

During that time some 250,000 people attended Festival events and many thousands more saw the street gallery exhibitions and installations located around the city.

As well as making architecture engaging and exciting for a new audience, we addressed important issues such as how we improve public space in cities, how architecture impacts the environment and generally how we make London a better place to live and work in. Architecture is now at the forefront of the cultural agenda and the Festival has shown that it is an essential consideration for the many rather than a specialist interest for the few. It was exciting to see the Festival expand across a large part of central London, and areas and organisations not included this year are already asking us if they can be involved in 2010.

The Festival saw sold-out talks from international names such as Daniel Libeskind, David Chipperfield, Rafael Viñoly, Cesar Pelli, Rem Koolhaas and LFA President Peter Ackroyd along with inspiring, interactive temporary structures and installations from the likes of Foster + Partners, Tonkin Liu and Carmody Groarke. The EXYZT Lido in Southwark showed how the Festival could successfully engage with the local community, the Embassy Project gave the Festival an international dimension while architectural practices around London opened their doors to the public.

I'd like to thank all those who helped to deliver the Festival so spectacularly - particularly Deputy Director Sarah Ichioka and her team of Amy Wright, Moira Lascelles and Zoe McLeod, Nick McKeogh, the Hub Curators - Charles Knevitt, Tim Hollins, Debbie Whitfield, Elias Redstone, Patrick McKeogh and Helen Arvanitakis and their supporting committees, as well as the main advisory committee of the Festival and of course our sponsors.

The next Festival will be in 2010. We look forward to seeing you there.

Peter Murray, Director, LFA 2008