🌿 GARDENS 28: Designing the Olympic Landscape
The Mission
To celebrate the Meals, Materials, and Medicines of our international community through living architecture. As we approach the LA 28 Olympic Games, Long Beach is planting the seeds for a global legacy. GARDENS 28 is a community-led initiative to design and activate Cultural Pavilions across our city’s parks, farms, and green spaces.
The Call for Entries
We invite designers, urban farmers, and culture-bearers to submit concepts for activated pavilions that celebrate the intersection of ecology and heritage through three distinct lenses:
Example Gallery
The Mission
To celebrate the Meals, Materials, and Medicines of our international community through living architecture. As we approach the LA 28 Olympic Games, Long Beach is planting the seeds for a global legacy. GARDENS 28 is a community-led initiative to design and activate Cultural Pavilions across our city’s parks, farms, and green spaces.
The Call for Entries
We invite designers, urban farmers, and culture-bearers to submit concepts for activated pavilions that celebrate the intersection of ecology and heritage through three distinct lenses:
- The Meal: Regional food traditions, heirloom crops, and the rituals of communal eating.
- The Materials: Earth-based building techniques using architectural plants like bamboo, hemp, or salvaged timber.
- The Medicines: The healing power of plants and traditional apothecary knowledge from around the globe.
Example Gallery
The Poster Exhibition
Create a visual poster that proposes a pavilion concept rooted in a specific nation, bioregion, or continent participating in the 2028 Games.
Your design should address:
Event & Exhibition
All entries will be featured in a public exhibition during the Long Beach Foodways Summit 2026 weekend.
Production & Submission
Partnerships & Sponsorhsips
Check out our Partnerships/Sponsorships flyer for the full breakdown of tiers and recognition.
Create a visual poster that proposes a pavilion concept rooted in a specific nation, bioregion, or continent participating in the 2028 Games.
Your design should address:
- Identity: Which culture or bioregion does this pavilion represent?
- Materiality: How is it built? Is there furniture? Shade? Equipment and supplies?
- Activation: How does the space function? (e.g., seed swaps, workshops).
- Location: Identify a potential site in Long Beach.
- 👉 Click Here to Explore the Long Beach Food Map for Site Inspiration
Event & Exhibition
All entries will be featured in a public exhibition during the Long Beach Foodways Summit 2026 weekend.
- Dates: April 3–5, 2026.
- Location: To Be Determined (Long Beach, CA).
Production & Submission
- Size: Posters must be 24" x 36".
- Format: Mounted boards (foam core/gator) are preferred, but other physical formats are acceptable.
- Narrative: Your board must include a concise narrative that explains the Who, What, Where, When, and Why behind your pavilion and its cultural significance.
- Delivery: Participants are responsible for the production and physical delivery of their posters to the exhibition site.
Partnerships & Sponsorhsips
Check out our Partnerships/Sponsorships flyer for the full breakdown of tiers and recognition.
Sponsored by the Port of Long Beach
