Dezeen teamed up with Open House Worldwide to livestream its festival exploring the future of housing and neighbourhood planning.

Called Housing and the People, the virtual festival was a 12-hour livestream featuring live tours of pioneering housing and critical debates about the future of housing.

It also showcased films and podcasts exploring historic and contemporary residential schemes and local approaches to housing issues.

The festival featured over 50 contributions from the global Open House network, from locations including London, Lagos, Melbourne, New York, Taiwan, Seoul and more. It was organised by London-based architecture charity Open City.

Featured speakers and tour guides included architects Antonio Cortés Ferrando, Johannes Eggen and Farshid Moussavi among other renowned designers.

This year's instalment of the festival explored the various ways that architects and city planners are trying to advance housing models and residential areas in line with the acceleration of technology, climate change and the evolving nature of how we live and socialise with one another since the coronavirus pandemic.

Other topics included how to build low-carbon housing to accommodate growing populations, what can be learnt from indigenous and vernacular architecture and how to retain the character of local townscapes when building on a larger scale.

Highlights of the festival included a live tour of Karakusevic Carson's ongoing redevelopment of the Colville Estate in east London, which comprises over 900 new residences as well as improved community facilities and public spaces.

Also featured was a presentation and panel discussion led by Studio Bright director Mel Bright exploring the complex economic, political and cultural implications that affect access to affordable and safe housing for women in Victoria, Australia.

Established in 2010, Open House Worldwide is a network of over fifty organisations in cities across the globe that present festivals, events and open a dialogue focusing on architecture, design and cities.

The first edition of the Open House Worldwide festival took place in November 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The 48-hour virtual festival was broadcast to a global audience of over 40,000 viewers and was named one of Dezeen's top events of 2020.

The full lineup of talks and more information about the festival can be found here.

Housing and the People took place from 7am-7pm UK time on 9 April 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This article was written as part of a partnership with Open House Worldwide. Find out more about our partnership content here.