Biennales, exhibitions, and architecture focused festivals provide a platform for opening debates, conducting research, and driving innovation, but they can also contribute to the incremental changes that shape the image and the character of a city. Through temporary installations and experiments, this type of events have the opportunity to open lines on inquiry into the quality of urban spaces, inviting visitors and residents to slow down, break away from their daily routine and interrogate their local environments. The effects might not be immediate, but by cumulating these impressions and moments of contemplation, architecture and design festivals can have a long-lasting impact on the cities that welcome them.
Some festivals like the London Design Festival 2022 or the The Tallinn Architecture Biennale are reinvigorating public spaces by introducing designer and artist-created objects, others like Model. Festival of Architecture of Barcelona are using the opportunity to discuss issues facing the city. Beta 2022, the Architecture Biennial of Timișoara is encouraging passerby to discover new ways of seeing and using their environment, while festivals like Concentrico are exploring ideas of history and appropriation through the temporary installations dispersed throughout the city.
