OPEN CALL FOR SOS-26

Curators

School SOS

SOS-26 is a free-to-attend 8 week long spatial practice development programme based in London, UK. Running between 16th July - 3rd September 2026, 12 participants will develop individual projects from their own lived experiences and communities. It aims to help develop projects as part of developing participants' unique design and spatial practices.

This year, the programme is hosted exclusively by The Koppel Project, who will provide studio space for the length of the programme, as well as host all public events and presentations from practitioners at the cutting edge of design, academia, journalism and more, including Thomas Aquilina, Earth Tenders, alongside Andy Belfield (Public Works) and many more guests and visiting artists and designers.

Alongside our public lecture series, participants will attend a closed-door Sustainable Finance lecture series dedicated to finance and funding emerging practice. This year, this includes POoR and Sophie Williams (Edit Collective) alongside many other guests. SOS-26 provides weekly technical workshops in digital media making software, including; Data and GIS Analysis and Visual Communication.

All participants will publicise their work and research during a final one week exhibition at The Koppel Project opening on Friday 28th August.

SOS-26 is supported using public funding by Arts Council England

2026 Brief: In Dialogue
This year’s programme emphasises relationships, bridge-building, community conversations, organising, collective intelligence building, and consciousness raising to help you write a brief for your first, or next project. We build on an evolving conversation brought by SOS participants and alumni around centering lived experience to spatial practice, and engaging with community over issues that mean something to them. For this reason, you will bring an existing project or set of conditions between you and your community to develop through SOS26.

‍The SOS Dia-Log is a document that takes whatever form you want it. It acts as a reflective journal, a diary of events, a plan of action, a list of components, a record of conversations with stakeholders, a compilation of thoughts from you and your community. It is a log [meaning a record], that is dia- [prefix meaning “across” and “through”] mediums and through time, producing a dialogue between your project objectives and your community.

The Dia-Log will act as a collaborative starting point containing knowledge and experience from previous spatial projects, from multiple people and specific to a place. This work will form part of your own set of value-based outcomes, i.e. something to help guide your time at SOS and beyond.
Apply here!

(Image part of 'Misused Margins', by Sara Omar as part of SOS-25)