Festival Village was designed as the social hub of Festival of the World, a summer arts festival organised by London's Southbank Centre in 2012. The space was designed and built collaboratively. Over 200+ staff and local volunteers worked together using 5+ tons of reclaimed materials to deliver the project. The space performed multiple functions from rehearsal space to dining space and from meeting space to touchdown workspace. Southbank Centre described Festival Village as "a demonstration of the power of what can be achieved when people work together to create something new".

Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, on the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. It comprises three main buildings (the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery), and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracts more than three million visitors annually. Nearly a thousand paid performances of music, dance and literature are staged at Southbank Centre each year, as well as over 300 free foyer events and an education programme, in and around the performing arts venues. In addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at Hayward Gallery yearly, and National Touring Exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK.