Announcing Future Heritage, our autumn programme and IAF House

The Irish Architecture Foundation will present an ambitious autumn 2025 programme of exhibitions, conversations, and panel discussions, which will unfold across the island of Ireland from September through November, including the return of IAF House, a free and accessible public venue for architecture at Charlemont Square, Dublin. 

With national and international contributors and designed for audiences of all ages, the IAF Future Heritage programme will address critical conversations that are shaping our built world. Over 25 free public events, including a festival, talks, conversations, workshops, exhibitions and films, will unfold across the cities of Limerick, Galway, Belfast and Dublin. IAF will work with local and national partners to gather public audiences, local communities, policymakers, architects, artists, writers and activists to explore a range of important, relevant and urgent issues in Ireland today. 

At the heart of the autumn programme is IAF House, a public venue for architecture and culture at Charlemont Square, Dublin. IAF House will champion the best of architecture and design in a new exhibition of Irish architects as well as host a dynamic range of free and accessible events. The venue will serve as a place for people to engage in critical conversations about issues that matter to them, such as housing, demolition and reuse, immigration, climate, social exclusion and community participation, and to gain new perspectives and knowledge on how architecture can assist the design of a better Ireland today.

At a time of real public interest in housing needs and climate change, and when design itself appears marginalised and under threat, Future Heritage asks: which practices of today will become tomorrow’s legacy? Future Heritage invites audiences to confront the fact that the buildings and public spaces we design and create today will shape how future generations understand their history and identity tomorrow. By fostering dialogue, critical design thinking and reciprocity between users and creators, policymakers, professionals and communities, the local and global, Future Heritage aims to deepen our understanding of architecture’s role in building a shared future across this island.

Speaking about the autumn programme, Emmett Scanlon, IAF Director, said: “For some time there has been much talk of global and local change. But change of what, and to what? Social crises are deepening, not easing. In Ireland, the value placed in design appears to be waning, the power of communities to build and sustain themselves is being overlooked, and the demolition of a building is too often treated as inconsequential, when in truth it erases part of our shared identity. 

Future Heritage is our loud, collective call to rethink how we value our heritage, our future and our role within it. Future Heritage is an act of resistance – resisting the neglect of our streets, our housing and our shared, public spaces. This season IAF is joining with cities and countries across Europe through our Open House network to explore this theme. In our twentieth year, IAF is working with renewed commitment to champion architecture, advocate for public participation in design and reset the values placed on our built environment. It has been said that stories are the secret reservoir of values, and changing the stories we tell can change the values. This year, we have built a Writers’ Table in IAF House with established and emerging authors, so together we can write new stories and imagine change on our horizons.”

The Future Heritage programme includes:

• New Life, Old Buildings 2025
• New international talks series Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Further programme and booking details will be released throughout September. 

All events are free and open to the public. 

IAF House at Charlemont Square will be open to the public Wednesday – Sunday, 3 October – 30 November 2025. 

IAF is principally funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. IAF is core funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the auspices of the National Built Heritage Service, the Office of Public Works, and Dublin City Council.

Photo: A Place Belongs Forever To, Charlemont Walk, Dublin, 2024. Photo by Paul Sherwood.