4 X 4 Series (2026 Edition) – Week 4

The Leeds Society of Architects, in conjunction with Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Civic Trust and RIBA, are excited to announce the return of the popular 4 X 4 talk series following an extremely successful and positive re-launch, due to be held across four Thursday evenings in February 2026.

Each evening will be chaired by four expert hosts, who will lead Q&A sessions with each and everyone of this year's sixteen brilliant speakers. For this year's series attendees will hear about the relationship the Built Environment, Architecture & Development has on People & Place, in the City of Leeds and further afield.

Chair: Prue Chiles (CE+CA Studio)

Speakers:

• Clifford Stead (Leeds Civic Trust) talking about the Leeds Civic Trust’s best buildings of the last 60 years, culminating in the Roger Stephen’s Building being awarded the top spot at last years LAA25!
• Rob Bumby (Stack Architects) talking about the LAA25 award winning project Carr Manor.
• Karen Stafeckis (McLaren Group) talking about the exciting work at York Central.
• Christian Male (Simpson Haugh) talking about LAA25 Award winner, Scape, Merrion Street

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the chairs and speakers already confirmed for the 2026 series (in alphabetical order):

Chairs:

• Andrew Edwards
• Martin Hamilton
• Peg Alexander
• Prue Chiles

Speakers (in alphabetical order by Company):

• James Arkle & Graham Boyce (ArkleBoyce Architects)
• Guy Smith (Bauman Lyons)
• Vicky Casey (BDP)
• Gareth Jackson (Brewster Bye)
• Graham Edward & Tim Reid (Edward Architects)
• Grace Choi (Grace Choi Architecture)
• James Hartley (Latch Charity)
• David Feeney (Leeds City Council)
• Clifford Stead (Leeds Civic Trust)
• Karen Stafeckis (McLaren Group)
• P+HS Architects
• Christian Male, Simpson Haugh
• Slung Low
• Rob Bumby (Stack Architects)
• Dr May Newisar (University of Leeds)

Please note, we are working hard to finalise each evening's schedule of speakers, which will be confirmed and each eventbrite updated in due course.

The event is in person and free, everyone is welcome to attend, we’d love to see as many in attendance as possible, please reserve a spot so we can keep track of the number of attendees. Each evening will run for approximately 2 hours, with an opportunity to discuss the themes heard during the evening and network afterwards.

The venue for all four evenings is: Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University, Portland Way, Leeds, LS1 3PB.

Please arrive promptly at 5:40pm, as the first speaker is due to begin at 6:15pm. The talks will draw to a close between 8pm/8:15pm, with networking to run until 9:45pm / 10pm.

Please be aware, the ticket reserved on this page is for Week 4: Thursday 26th February. To attend the other evenings within the series, please follow the Eventbrite links below.

Event program:

• Week 1: Thursday 5th February (Eventbrite Ticket Link)

• Week 2: Thursday 12th February (Eventbrite Ticket Link)

• Week 3: Thursday 19th February (Eventbrite Ticket Link)

• Week 4: Thursday 26th February

Please note due to changes at the venue we unfortunately won't be able to stream each evening, as we did with 2024's edition of the series last year. Therefore the only way to enjoy the event is to attend in person!

To avoid disappointment, we encourage everyone to secure their tickets ASAP, as tickets sold out ahead of each evening in 2025.

We look forward to seeing you there,

Luke

LSA President

*Please note in reserving a free ticket you agree to be contacted by the evening's partners, sponsors and added to the LSA Mailing List.

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