Archinect and Bustler have compiled a quick list of architecture and design events for our friends across the pond. In addition to our ongoing New York City and Los Angeles lists, below is a handpicked selection of engaging lectures, discussions, upcoming exhibitions as well as ongoing ones you might have not heard about yet, and other design-happenings around London.

Check back regularly to stay up to date. Here's our list of recommendations for May 10-17.

David Bickle: What are museums really for? | May 11, recommended by Ellen Hancock

With the development of the V&A East in progress, Design Director David Bickle discusses his plans for the museum and it aims to create a new model for cultural organisations. He will also deliberate what he thinks a museum of the future should look like in the ‘digital age’. The talk takes place at the architectural wonder Second Home, just another reason not to miss out.

Style Wars: The Debate Awakens | May 12, recommended by Justine Testado

Graphic design by Chloe Spiby Loh, via futurecities.org.uk.

Is style relevant? Are -isms an archaic approach to thinking about design? This debate is sure to be engaging for anyone, designer or not, who has questioned that notion. Hear from five architects/critics defend their stance for their particular style, before they must respond to questions from each other as well as the audience. Take part in the discussion! You might learn something new.

Are We Human? — Design After Design symposium | May 13, recommended by Nicholas Korody

“ARE WE HUMAN?: THE DESIGN OF THE SPECIES 200,000 years, 200 years, 2 years, 2 seconds” is the unwieldy title of this year's upcoming Istanbul Design Biennial, curated by Mark Wigley and Beatriz Colomina. Don't be turned off by the name — the third iteration of the biennial on the Bosphorous may be the best one yet (if not also one of the most exciting events of the year). With a wildly ambitious set of themes that address design from the global scale (i.e. the Anthropocene) down to the molecular (i.e. Adderall), the Biennial exemplifies the type of thinking required by our contemporary globalized, and globally-warming, era. This symposium should be a great preview of what these all-star curators have up their sleeves.

Urban Jigsaw | Open now until May 29, recommended by Amelia Taylor-Hochberg

Proposed as an ideas competition last year, “Urban Jigsaw” responds to London’s housing crisis by challenging architects to develop brownfields in the city. The speculative proposals, now on display at the Royal Academy of Arts, include a communal “food palace”, a work-teach space for artists, and courthouses deconstructed into public spaces.

Pablo Bronstein: Historical Dances in an Antique Setting | Open now until October 9, recommended by Alexander Walter

Pablo Bronstein, Historical Dances in An Antique Setting, 2016. Artwork © Pablo Bronstein. Photography © Tate 2016.

“A spectacle not to be missed” is what The Tate Britain calls artist Pablo Bronstein's latest site-specific performance in response to the museum's imposing Duveen galleries: inspired by a keen interest in the Baroque period, Bronstein has dancers – not entirely without a sense of humor – continuously move through the galleries interacting with the architectural elements of the neo-classical surroundings.