The biennial London Festival of Architecture is the largest event of its kind in the world. In 2008 a quarter of a million people took part in over 600 events including the inaugural Embassies Project, now renamed as the International Architecture Showcase (IAS), for which embassies across London were invited to show work from their country.
This year's London Festival of Architecture addressed the theme, The Welcoming City, a reference to the design of cities which are amenable, engaging and tolerant as well as to the slogan for the 2012 Olympic Games that 'London welcomes the world'. The festival programme was grounded in London; its built environment and its community. Embassies and cultural institutes are an essential part of this community and help to define London as a capital city.
The IAS is an opportunity for embassies and cultural institutes to come together and show the innovative and thought-provoking architectural projects emerging from their countries. Nearly 40 countries were involved in the Showcase this year, hosting a range of events including exhibitions, installations, lectures, debates and films.
 The architecture critic, Tom Dyckhoff, presented the inaugural Silver Pigeon award to Japan for the best IAS project, as selected by our expert panel of architects and critics. The Japanese exhibition IE = Home will be open to the public until 30 July 2010.
IE = Home
Embassy of Japan
101/104 Piccadilly London
W1J 7JT
7 June - 30 July / 09:30 - 17:30
Find out more about the Japanese exhibition here
Check our Flickr account for photos of various exhibitions and installations from the IAS
Our Architecture, Design, Fashion team have been reporting on the IAS via the Blueprint Magazine blog
The Silver Pigeon award was designed by David Ward from Nottingham University and Bibliotheque were responsible for the IAS graphic design.
The countries taking part in this year's IAS are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and USA.
The British Council organised this year's International Architecture Showcase in partnership with The Architecture Foundation for the London Festival of Architecture 2010. To find out more about the London Festival of Architecture 2010 visit www.lfa2010.org.
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