Beyond The Box CIC

20/08/2026

📣 Volunteers wanted — be part of Festival of the Future 2026!

We're looking for friendly, enthusiastic people to join our volunteer team at the Royal College of Art in Battersea on Friday 9 & Saturday 10 October.

You'll help welcome guests, support our workshops and talks, and be part of opening up architecture, design and the built environment to the next generation. No experience needed — just good energy!

✅ Travel covered up to £10
✅ Lunch for full-day volunteers
✅ Flexible slots across both days
✅ Volunteers must be 18+

⏳ Register by Thursday 3 September — sign up via the link below 👇

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdteUCSHCNVcGp8iIS5Eczob_-M0WezcjckoL726nNSGmqqhQ/viewform

Creating equity by design — we can't wait to build the future with you.

20/08/2026

We’re building the future — and we want you on the team!

Volunteer with us at Festival of the Future 2026 and help open up architecture, design and the built environment to the next generation.

📍 Royal College of Art, Battersea
📅 Fri 9 & Sat 10 October
🎟️ Travel covered up to £10 + lunch for full-day volunteers

No experience needed — just good energy. Flexible slots across both days, and volunteers must be 18+.

⏳ Register by Thursday 3 September — complete the form below 👇

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdteUCSHCNVcGp8iIS5Eczob_-M0WezcjckoL726nNSGmqqhQ/viewform

10/08/2026

We believe everyone should get to shape the world around them — whoever they are, wherever they're from.

Festival of the Future 2026 is now open to book: two free days at the Royal College of Art, Battersea, opening up architecture, engineering, design and the whole built environment to the next generation.

This year brings the whole sector into one place — world-renowned practices, engineers and planners, universities, and the collectives and community organisations doing the real work. Far too many brilliant partners to name here, so head to the link to see the full line-up.

🎫 Friday 9 October — a hands-on day for schools (ages 11–16).
�🎟️ Saturday 10 October — open to everyone 16+, closing with our evening panel, Designing Better Futures, on our 8th birthday.

Every event is free. We don't tick boxes — we listen, and we act. This is what creating equity by design looks like.

See the full line-up and book your place: 👇�https://www.beyondtheboxcic.com/festival-of-the-future-2026

With thanks to every partner and sponsor, and to our media partner Dezeen.

Dezeen Royal College of Art

Free at the Royal College of Art, London, 9–10 Oct 2026. Architecture, engineering, planning and the wider built environment — hands-on workshops, tours and talks.

21/07/2026

🚨 SAVE THE DATE 🚨

Festival of the Future is back!

🗓️ 9–10 October 2026
📍 Royal College of Art, Battersea Campus

The UK’s largest built environment careers festival for young people and emerging professionals returns for two days of workshops, talks, activities and opportunities to discover careers shaping the future of our cities.

Produced by Beyond the Box CIC in collaboration with partners from across the built environment.

More partner announcements, workshops and booking information coming real soon.

12/05/2026

The future of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre is being shaped by the people who know it best.

Our second film for the Future Palace Programme is here.

Over the past 7 months, we’ve been bringing together young people, creatives, designers & local residents to reimagine the future of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre through workshops, live design ideas, storytelling and design iteration.

This isn’t just about sport or design.
It’s about culture, identity, opportunity and giving communities a real voice in shaping the spaces around them.

Huge love to everyone who’s been part of the journey.

🎥 Watch the film
📍 Crystal Palace National Sports Centre

In collaboration with &

Community

23/04/2026

Still buzzing from yesterday’s event at City Hall.

What a way to round off 7 months of work on the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

At City Hall, our Design Innovators took to the stage for the Future Palace Showcase – sharing bold ideas, thoughtful solutions, and self-made prototypes that reimagine the future of this iconic space.

From trackside innovation and lighting concepts, to wayfinding, seating, and water systems – every idea came from young people shaping the spaces around them.

This is what it looks like when young voices are given a real platform.

Huge thank you to everyone involved in making it happen and our project partners and for commissioning the project.

17/03/2026

Why create The Living Archive?

Because community work often disappears once the project ends.

Workshops happen.
Spaces are activated.
Ideas are shared.

But the lived experiences, learning and voices behind those moments are rarely captured.

The Living Archive exists to document those experiences — the people who shaped them, the collaborations that made them possible, and the creative processes behind the outcomes.

It’s an evolving collection of films that reflect how communities, young people and creative practitioners are helping shape cities, culture and public space.

And it will continue to grow.

Explore the archive and discover the stories behind the work.

Link in bio.

16/03/2026

Inside The Living Archive, our projects are organised around three themes that reflect how Beyond the Box approaches collaboration with communities.

Where Care Becomes Structure
Equity strategy and social value work within regeneration and development.

Growing Voices
Programmes that support young people and communities to share insight, creativity and leadership.

Making Place Together
Cultural placemaking initiatives that transform public space through art, architecture and collective creativity.

Together these projects document how communities, culture and creativity shape the places we live.

Explore the Living Archive through the link in our bio.

14/03/2026

Looking back at our collaboration on Lund Point, the V&A Museum and artist Brendan Barry.

In the summer of 2021, our young cultural producers worked with artist Brendan Barry and the V&A Museum to transform four empty dwellings in a 23-storey high camera obscura on the Carpenters Estate in East London.

Rooms inside the vacant flats were converted into multi-lens camera obscura and analogue photographic darkrooms, where together we created ultra-large format analogue photographic prints capturing a unique perspective of the landscape around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The images documented a moment of transition — as East Bank was beginning to emerge and the V&A East Storehouse and V&A East Museum prepared to open nearby.

This work reframed the site through the lived experiences of people in East London, exploring photography as an act of cultural democracy and community storytelling.

The exhibition first opened at The People’s Pavilion 2021 during the 10-day Envision East festival, before travelling to the V&A Museum in South Kensington as part of London Design Festival, where it was displayed on the architectural landing.

“This project is unique because unlike a lot of things commissioned by cultural spaces, it actively engaged with the voices of the community that it situated itself in… The project allowed young East Londoners to ‘take up space’.”
— Condie Baiden, Lead Young Cultural Producer

Excited to see the V&A East Museum open later this year, continuing this evolving cultural story in East London.