The Irish Architecture Foundation is marking its 20th year with Future Heritage, its most ambitious cultural programme to date - IAF Director Emmett Scanlon introduces the programme below.
This autumn, the Irish Architecture Foundation is exploring a range of important, relevant and urgent issues in Ireland today, confirming architecture as a cultural force. Future Heritage, one of our most ambitious seasons to date, unfolds from September to November across Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Belfast with more than 25 free events: talks, conversations, workshops, exhibitions and films. The programme is an island-wide invitation to look again at the built environment and public spaces that shape our lives and explore how we together shape our built future.
Back by audience-demand, at the centre of the season is IAF House, a free public venue for architecture at Charlemont Square, Dublin, open Wednesday–Sunday from 3rd October to 30th November 2025. Part gallery, part civic living room with a dedicated sensory space, IAF House will showcase three exhibitions while hosting a dynamic programme of events. Expect conversations about housing, demolition and reuse, climate change, construction, cultural heritage and community participation. The season is a call to rethink how we value our heritage, our future and our role within it.
Future Heritage is rich with cultural crossovers. The Writers’ Table creates opportunities for established and emerging authors to co-author new narratives of place, proving that architecture and literature share a deep connection with memory, meaning and identity. Open House Dublin, Ireland’s largest architecture festival, returns from 11th – 19th October, including Open House Junior, a dedicated weekend for under-16s with tours, workshops and tactile, accessible events. Across the season, you’ll find film screenings, public keynotes and hands-on workshops that invite audiences to participate rather than observe.
The programme is an island-wide invitation to look again at the built environment and public spaces that shape our lives and explore how we together shape our built future.
Several notable initiatives make this programme so compelling. New Life, Old Buildings (Limerick city and online) celebrates adaptive reuse and sustainable design, spotlighting creativity over demolition. IAF is also co-presenting groundbreaking international speakers and innovators to audiences in Dublin, Galway and Belfast, making this an all-island season.
designed by Clancy Moore Architects (Pic: Johan Dehlin)
To Not Design Is To Cost the Earth assembles photographs and drawings from architects across the island, demonstrating that design is not a luxury but a tool for collective progress in the built environment. On top of these, other highlights include gapLab Sessions with a public keynote by Léopold Lambert (The Funambulist) and kicking off Irish Design Week with a headline architecture talk, with Jayden Ali and Resolve Collective in conversation to get the week off to a thought-provoking start.
The IAF autumn programme has a strong placemaking thread. A Place Belongs Forever, Two convenes a national gathering with a focus on the health and wellbeing impacts, with John Bingham-Hall from Paris hosting a workshop in Dublin on the greening of cities with trees.
All events are free and open to everyone. The full autumn programme and booking go live in early September. Keep an eye on www.architecturefoundation.ie and follow us for updates. Come join the conversation at IAF House this autumn.
IAF House at Charlemont Square will be open to the public from Wednesday – Sunday, 3rd October - 30th November 2025. For more information and ticket details, go here
