House and home

Explore the past, present and future of the home with a new RIBA public exhibition and series of talks and events. The season complements the RIBA’s HomeWise campaign

One of the highlights of the RIBA’s spring programme, the Home Season looks to engage the general public with the development of the home. Events take place at 66 Portland Place unless otherwise stated.

Exhibition
A place to call home
Where we live and why
16 February-27 April
Free, Gallery 1
Home is an essential part of us all – an extension of our everyday lives. This RIBA exhibition, curated by Sarah Beeny, charts the design and appeal of everyday homes in the UK. It explores the characteristics of a British obsession and the experiments that have shaped how and where we live.

Associated Events
High Society
Exhibition, 16 February-27 April
Free, British Architectural Library
Using vintage imagery from the RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection this exhibition explores five classic post-war high-rise housing schemes – the Alton Estate at Roehampton; Churchill Gardens, Pimlico; Park Hill, Sheffield; Hutchesontown, Glasgow; and Thamesmead.

Your house, your home
Family activity, Friday 17 February, 11.00-15.00
Free family drop-in event
Enjoy a fun-filled day all about the Great British home. Take a tour of A place to call home and learn how our homes have changed over the past two centuries. Be inspired by the RIBA’s drawings and models, and build your own house of the future using just scissors, paper, glue and a bit of imagination.

Land of promise
Film, Tuesday 28 February, 18.30
Tickets: £5. Advance booking advisable: architecture.com/programmes
Immediately after the Second World War rehousing was a national priority. This landmark documentary, featuring John Mills, is a passionate and ambitious discussion of the factors leading to the postwar housing crisis. It calls on the people of Britain to demand better conditions and prepare for an era of better housing.
Director Paul Rotha, 1946.Running time 63 minutes.

A place called Bata-ville
Talk, Tuesday 28 February, 19.00. Free drop-in event
Britain’s relationship with the modern movement and its early landmarks are well established through buildings like Highpoint or Bexhill’s De La Warr pavilion. Less well known is the Bata Estate in East Tilbury, an interwar development predating them all. Discover more about this obscure modernist landmark, planned and built by the Bata shoe manufacturer, in a talk and discussion led by Dr Irena Murray, director of the British Architectural Library.

Dilapidated dwelling
Film, Tuesday 20 March, 18.30
Tickets: £5. Advance booking advisable at architecture.com/programmes
The modern predicament of UK housing is the focus of this feature length documentary. After a 20-year absence, a fictional researcher, voiced by Tilda Swinton, returns to the UK to discover that despite the digital and economic boom, its houses are among the most expensive and most dilapidated in western Europe. The film includes interviews and rare archival footage from architects Constant, Buckminster Fuller and the Archigram group. Director Patrick Keiller, 2000.
Running time 78 minutes.

A house to call home
Closer Look talk, V&A, South Kensington. Free drop-in event
Tuesday 10 April, 13.00-14.00
As an extension of our everyday lives, a home is an essential part of us all. Featuring the work of William Chambers, CFA Voysey, Erno Goldfinger, Tecton and more, this talk examines how great architects have explored and expressed ideas of house and home. With Dr Elizabeth Grant, RIBA.