In collaboration with the Queer Educations in Architecture Network (QuEAN), the Royal Institute of British Architects would like to invite architecture students to submit a project for LGBT+ History Month’s 2025 theme: Activism and Social Change.
We are looking for creative works to be displayed in an exhibition, opening February 2025, in the RIBA Library – 66 Portland Place, London. The project should respond to the theme from an architectural lens with an emphasis on LGBTQ+ lives, community, or history. This is an opportunity to bring light to underrepresented voices and stories both within RIBA’s own past but architecture more broadly.
Projects can either be completed coursework that you would like to share, or you can create a new project, accompanied by one of our RIBA Collections photographs. The images do not have to be overtly LGBTQ+, you are free to interpret and play with the collections as a response to the theme. Six projects will be selected from each category.
Category 1: Course-related project
Entries in this category can be an existing piece of work that you have completed during your time as an architecture student or apprentice. They must meet the theme criteria around activism and social change through an architectural lens focusing on the LGBTQ+ community.
Category 2: New reflections
Entries in this category are open to create a new piece of work reflecting on the theme of activism and social change through an architectural lens focusing on the LGBTQ+ community. This can be a response to how voices are currently underrepresented in the built environment, or you may choose to reflect on an object of LGBTQ+ significance from the RIBA Collections.
You are welcome to browse the RIBApix website to make your selection. Please indicate on your entry correspondence which images you have used (title and reference number). If your entry is selected, we will accompany your project with a high resolution print out of the image(s) within the display.
Entry information
The open call begins on 20 December 2024 and will close at 11.59pm on 20 January 2025. Entries will be reviewed by a panel consisting of RIBA and QuEAN colleagues and winning projects will be contact the week following the submission closure date.
Entrants should submit the following by the deadline. Late entries will not be accepted.
- If you are submitting a completed project, please send the document (no more than one A4 page) as either a Word doc, PDF, or ODT
- If you are interpreting an item from the collections, please submit the RIBApix title/reference number alongside the text that is no more than one A4 page in either a Word doc, PDF, or ODT. Facsimiles of any images used from RIBApix will be printed by RIBA if your submission is successful
- 100-word summary of the project which will be included in any press or online communications
- Your name and current course/school
Please submit your entry to inclusionanddiversity@riba.org by the deadline.
A panel of RIBA and QuEAN colleagues will select up to 12 winning entries based on their creativity and how well they responded to the theme/brief. Winners will be contacted the week following the open call closure to coordinate any adaptation requirements to their project for display.
Terms and conditions
- This call is open to all architecture students, RIBA Student members and non-members currently completing their Part 1, 2 (including RIBA Studio) or similar apprenticeship programme in the UK
- Entries require a named individual project leader as a point of contact, projects can be either individual or group submissions, and all team members will be credited within the exhibition
- It is a condition of entry that any non-RIBA Student members must join as a student member. This is a free membership, and you can join any time before the closure of this call (20 January 2025). Find out more about becoming a RIBA Student Member
Submission requirements
- Entrants must submit their completed project in either a Word doc, PDF, or ODT file, alongside a 100-word summary of the project and their name/current course/school
- The call will open on 20 December 2024 and close at 11.59pm on Monday 20 January 2025.
- Submissions should be sent by email to inclusionanddiversity@riba.org by the closing date/time.
- No responsibility can be accepted for any entries not received. You will receive an automated reply acknowledging your email, after that you will only be contacted again if your entry is successful
Looking for inspiration? Browse our OUT of Space digital exhibition or view our LGBTQ+ research guide.
