Architecture Week, the annual celebration of new and inspirational architecture, starts tomorrow, and rather unusually for a week, will run for 9 days until the 30th June.

It is being organised by the Arts Council of England in association with the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and is being heralded as an exploration of 'The Way We Live'.

Whether we are at home, at work, doing the shopping or relaxing in a bar, buildings shape our lives. The week of events, excursions, exhibitions and talks will explore questions such as: How does the built environment which surrounds us, every hour of every day, make us think, behave and feel? How has it been made? How might it change in the future?

Architecture Week will showcase over 250 events featuring celebrated architects and celebrities, ranging from opportunities to see inside new contemporary houses, going on site to find out how a building is made and exhibitions to talks, tours and even the chance to get an architect to come and help sort out your own home.

Key events include:

Architect in the House
registration 21-30 June
This annual event, organised by the RIBA, partners members of the public with architects throughout the country, to discuss the design potential of their homes. For up to an hour long consultation with an architect, participants are asked to make a minimum donation of £20, which goes to Shelter. (Last year over £85,000 was raised). To register for Architect in the House, telephone the hotline on 0870 050 0701 (Lines are open from 21 June to 30 June from 9am-5pm). All enquiries will be dealt with on a first come first served basis.

Architect in the Workplace
registration 21-30 June
Arrange an hour long consultation with an architect in your office/restaurant/shop, in return for a £50 donation to Shelter - register at www.riba.org/workplace

Architect in the Store at Habitat
Saturday 22 June (10am-6pm) and Sunday 23 June (1pm-5pm)
Pick up some inspirational advice on how you can transform your home, whilst surrounded by the best in modern furniture design. Half hour surgery sessions will be available with an RIBA registered architect at Habitat Kings Road, in return for a £10 donation to Shelter. Habitat, 208 Kings Road, London, SW3.

Open Practice
Tuesday 25 June from 4 - 8pm
Architects' offices often become a test-bed for new materials and ideas. Open Practice, organised by the RIBA, invites you into these spaces, to see how architects work, their influences and the environments in which they design. This is your opportunity to see the offices of big names such as Zaha Hadid, Will Alsop, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, as well as work by young and funky practices. Architects around Clerkenwell, Old Street and Shoreditch in London have joined forces for an Open Practice evening trail - visit each practice on foot, stopping off at the best architectural bars in town. Download an Open Practice map at www.architectureweek.org.uk

Building Sights
One of the best ways to understand architecture is to watch a building being built - see how a building comes together from the architect's ideas, drawings and models to completion. Get an exclusive view behind the hoardings during Architecture Week to see what is taking shape at a building site near you. Log onto www.buildingsights.org.uk for further details.

Question of Housing
Wednesday 26 June 6.30pm (Free but should be booked on 020 7307 3699)
How do you want to live? Who is responsible for making the decisions about the neighbourhoods and houses where you live? Should they be doing any better? This 'Question Time' style debate will offer you the opportunity to pose questions on how to ensure affordable housing and good design are delivered to you and your community. Panellists will include housing decision makers - architects, developers and those who commission housing. Submit a question to the panel by e-mail to questionofhousing@inst.riba.org and/or join the audience to have your say. Venue: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1 at 6.30pm.

Sweet Buildings
(Sun 30 June at 11am)
Jane Asher, celebrity cake expert will be judging an imaginative architectural cakes and confection competition. Venue: Dulwich Picture Gallery 020 8693 6060

Basic House
(21-30 June)
A 200 gram pocket sized fold-up minimal house, automatically inflated by the occupant's body heat, will be displayed floating over the floor at the RIBA. Described as "a life of transit without material ties. Having it all while hardly having anything." Venue: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, W1

Modelling Buildings
(Wednesday 26 June 2.30pm)
Schoolchildren from Medway primary schools will model architectural costumes they have created for a cat walk show. Venue: Medway Visitor Centre

Memory, Legacy and Public Buildings
(Sun 30 June 4pm)
Daniel Libeskind and Marco Goldschmied, Past President of the RIBA and Managing Director of Richard Rogers Partnership will discuss how the past is memorialised in large public buildings, such as the new Imperial War Museum in Manchester and the proposed Spiral at the V&A. Venue RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1. To book 020 7307 3699

Bookshop talks
(21-30 June)
There will be a series of architectural discussions and book launches at bookshops throughout the country. For the latest details, visit www.architectureweek.org.uk

Sense and the City
V&A Late View 28 June 2002 6pm -10pm
Drinks and DJs, a Sense Garden, a choral sensation in the Raphael Room, which explores the dynamic relationship between music and space. There will be the opportunity to see architectural connections all over the Victoria and Albert Museum, with tours from top architects; feel the most luxurious building materials and build your own building for our fantasy map.

Sense and the City free talks (must be booked):

Making Bridges
21 June at 6.30pm (To book 020 7973 6426)
Roger Ridsdill Smith, the design director of the Millennium Bridge and poet Alice Oswald who has commissioned poems about Westminster Bridge, will discuss bridges and creating pathways through cities and across water. Venue: Tate Modern. Chaired by Terry Braun.

Gardens, Modernism and Grand Design
22 June at 2pm (To book 020 7973 6426)
Author and garden designer Jane Brown, architect Eric Parry and artist Tom Phillips talk in the Arne Jacobson garden at St Catherine's in Oxford, focusing on how art, architecture and design can enhance our cities. Chaired by Hugh Pearman.

Taste Matters
24 June at 6.30pm (To book 020 7247 8989)
A discussion on how design compliments food at The Light, 233 Shoreditch High St, London E1 with David Eyre from Eyre Bros., architect Andrew Waugh and food critic (tbc). Chaired by Caroline Roux.

Poet in the House
25 June at 7pm £7.50/£6 (To book 020 7420 9406)
Poets Roy Fischer and Fleur Adcock will be in conversation with architect Will Alsop and Guardian architecture correspondent Jonathan Glancey at Somerset House, to discuss the ways in which we respond to cities imaginatively and their portrayal in poetry. Chaired by Christina Patterson from the Poetry Society. In association with the Poetry Society and the Arts Council of England.

Urban Delight
26 June at 6.30pm (To book 020 7973 6426)
How do the new buildings of Manchester affect the atmosphere of the city? Designer Jason Prior from EDAW, architect Ian Simpson and sculptor Ian Rawlinson talk at Tadao Ando's Pavilion in Manchester.

Architecture Scores!
27 June at 6.30pm (To book 020 7973 6426)
Does stadia design have an influence on the players, the fans and the surrounding community? Author Simon Inglis, architect Rod Sheard, HOK Sport + Venue + Event, and footballer Gary Mabbutt talk in the Long Room at the Oval, chaired by Andrew Shields, Time Out's Sports Editor.

House in Garden
29 June at 2pm (To book 020 7973 6426)
How do gardens enhance architecture and how do buildings inspire gardens? Garden designer Dan Pearson and architects Eldridge Smerin will talk with design consultant Frances Sorrell about their recent work at the Sorrell's glamorous London home. Chaired by Maxwell Hutchinson.

Tours and previews of new contemporary buildings include:

Gateshead Millennium Bridge
(Mon 24 June 6-7.30pm)
Jim Eyre, designer of the unique, award-winning bridge spanning the River Tyne, will lead a tour of the bridge followed by a talk about the design process and an explanation of how the bridge tilts, resembling a 'blinking-eye'. To book: 0191 260 2191

Magna, Rotherham: architect and client: the creative partnership
(Thursday 27 June 7pm - 8.30pm)
Magna Chief Executive, Stephen Feber and Wilkinson Eyre Project Architect, Marc Barron, will lead a tour and talk about the architecture of the RIBA Stirling Prize winning building. To book: 01709 720002

The Womens Library, London
(Wed 26 and Thu 27 June at 7.30pm) - Explore this much acclaimed new building with the director Antonia Byatt and architects, Clare and Sandy Wright.

Sorrel House, Chichester
(Sat 29 June 11.30am)
A 1960s modular hardwood framed house by David Thomas, skillfully updated and extended by Peter Foggo Associates. To book: 020 7490 4040

The Lodge, Whithurst Park
(Sat 22 June 2 at 5:30pm)
A contemporary timber clad country house by James Gorst. To book: 020 7336 7140

Woodland Enterprise Centre, Flimwell
(Sat 22 June 10am to 5pm)
Designed by Fielden Clegg Bradley to illustrate the use of building with indigenous sweet chestnut tree. To book: 01892 515311

RNLI Boathouse, Bude
(Thurs 27 June at 4 pm)
Talk and tour of the newly completed RNLI boathouse by architects Neil Tibbitts and Clive Charles of The Bazeley Partnership. To book: 01752 265927

The Jubilee Line
David Lawrence, architect and author of 'Underground Architecture', leads tours to some of London's world-famous art-deco and modernist Underground stations of the 1920s and 1930s, and to brand new breathtaking designs on the Jubilee line. (22/23/29/30 June at 11am £14) 07940 073136

For the full guide to Architecture Week events, visit www.architectureweek.org.uk