Invest in ASEAN (IIA) · Strategic Proposal · August 2026

ASEAN HOUSE
 @
BATTERSEA

A permanent home for UK–ASEAN culture, trade and diplomacy built on three years of celebrASIA and the proven appetite of 176,000 visitors.

IN PARTNERSHIP 
Battersea Power Station Corporation
176,000+
celebrASIA 2025 visitors — 3 days
108 min
BPSC benchmark average dwell time
11
ASEAN missions already engaged
3 yrs
of celebrASIA, growing every year
The Central Question

What If Three Days Became Twelve Months?

BPSC has, without fully naming it, already built the pilot for this proposal. For three consecutive years, celebrASIA run in partnership with all 11 ASEAN High Commissions and Embassies has drawn record crowds to the riverside neighbourhood, earning a permanent footprint in Malaysia Square.

ASEAN House asks one question: what happens when that three-day annual peak becomes a twelve-month presence? A dedicated exhibition, retail and convening space anchored by an expanded Nations Week each September, sustained by monthly programming for the other eleven months.

"The strongest version of this case is BPSC's own data pointed at a gap in its own calendar."
The Transformation
Today
celebrASIA: 3 Days a Year
London's largest South East Asian festival — record crowds, 11 ASEAN missions, Malaysia Square. A proven audience. A proven model. A three-day spike.
→ ASEAN House converts this into →
With ASEAN House
A Twelve-Month
Civic Destination
Monthly programming across five pillars. A permanent retail and exhibition presence. The recognised address for UK–ASEAN engagement in London — 365 days a year.
The Physical Concept

Three Layers,
One Address

The footprint logic is borrowed from Japan House London — the only precedent that combines retail, exhibition, hospitality and public programming inside a major mixed-use London destination as a commercially self-sustaining cultural anchor.
🏛️
Retail & Exhibition
A rotating exhibition and retail presence — the ASEAN Creators showcase for artisan goods, textiles, food producers and designers across all eleven nations, refreshed on a national rotation so each mission gets a hosted month.
150–250 sqm · Electric Boulevard or Turbine Hall
Cambodia Laos Myanmar Timor-Leste + 7 more
🎤
Convening Space
A programming and convening space for panels, trade briefings, diaspora community events and the Game Changers sport-climate series — bookable on the Asia House model so hire revenue funds the operation without requiring BPSC subsidy.
Shared bookable event room · Revenue-generating
Trade Briefings Panel Series Embassy Events
🍜
Hospitality
A food and beverage anchor showcasing ASEAN cuisine on rotation — extending the celebrASIA street-food relationships into a permanent presence rather than a three-day pop-up.
Rotating culinary residencies
Roti King Sambal Shiok APOY + partners
Proof of Concept

Three-Year
Track Record

This proposal is not a request to test an unproven idea. It is a request to formalise a relationship BPSC has already built, validated three times over, and publicly credited with record visitor numbers.

BPSC's Track Record
▸
176,000+ visitors in 2025 — BPSC describes celebrASIA as "London's largest South East Asian festival"
▸
Three consecutive years of celebrASIA — 2024, 2025, 2026 — run with all 11 ASEAN High Commissions and Embassies
▸
Malaysia Square — a permanent, named space already purpose-used for ASEAN programming
▸
Winter Light Festival retired for 2026 — BPSC explicitly seeking "new and exciting visitor experiences" to fill that calendar gap
▸
2026 celebrASIA already expanded into panels on fashion, culture, literature and film — BPSC moving toward cultural-institution format
IIA's Credentials
▸
Formal MOU with the Lao PDR Embassy London (IIA/LAO/MOU/2026/001) — Civic Cultural Cooperation across Diversification, Digitalisation and Decarbonisation
▸
Public commendation from the Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK for the APPG revival work
▸
Standing offer from Thavoine Singharaj, Deputy Head of Mission (Lao Embassy) to convene the Cambodia–Myanmar–Timor-Leste Mekong bloc
▸
Direct access to the ASEAN London Group, chaired by the Cambodian Ambassador — the cross-embassy convening mechanism
Active Delivery Partners
▸
Football For Future · Pledgeball · BritCham Vietnam · Rotary International · Frontier Leadership Institute Vietnam
Prepared By
SEACOM
25 Fair Street, London SE1 · August 2026
Twelve Months, Five Pillars

The Programming Architecture

🌏
September · Annual Flagship
Nations Week
celebrASIA expanded to 5–7 days — the visible, high-footfall centrepiece launching the permanent ASEAN House footprint and welcoming all 11 ASEAN embassies.
All 11 ASEAN Missions · BPSC co-presented
✈️
11,000 Journeys
Youth Mobility & Exchange
Language exchange, study and internship showcases with UK universities and ASEAN diaspora youth networks. Connecting the next generation of UK–ASEAN professionals.
UK universities · Youth diaspora networks
👩‍💼
11,000 Women
Gender Equity Panels & Networks
Panel series and diaspora networking on the Asia Society convening model. Championing women of South East Asian heritage across the professions.
Asia Society model · Embassy co-hosts
⚽
11,000 Game Changers
Sport & Climate Series
Monthly sport-and-climate events extending the football-climate programme with Football For Future and Pledgeball — using Battersea's existing sport infrastructure (The Battersea Games, Rocket Padel).
Football For Future · Pledgeball · Battersea Sport
💼
11,000 SMEs
Trade & Investment Briefings
Monthly trade briefings for South East Asian-owned and South East Asian-facing UK businesses, run jointly with trade attachés and the Department for Business and Trade.
Trade attachés · DBT · BritCham Vietnam
11,000 Creators
Rotating National Showcases
Retail, exhibition and culinary takeovers — one nation hosted per month outside September. Each of the eleven missions gets a dedicated hosted month, refreshing the permanent footprint and sustaining diaspora community engagement throughout the year.
11 Nations · 11 Months
Vietnam · Thailand · Malaysia · Indonesia · Philippines · Singapore · Cambodia · Laos · Myanmar · Brunei · Timor-Leste
📅
10 monthly events across the five pillars — each hosted with a rotating embassy and named delivery partner. The annual Nations Week serves as the visible flagship; the eleven months of pillar programming sustain the relationship year-round.
Proven Precedents

Three Models That
Show This Works

Each model demonstrates one layer of the ASEAN House proposition — applied to eleven nations at a site that has already demonstrated the audience exists.
Cultural Anchor · Retail + Exhibition + Hospitality
Japan House London
High Street Kensington
The only precedent that combines retail, exhibition and hospitality in a single, commercially self-sustaining footprint inside a major London destination. Operated by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs without subsidy from its host site.
Footprint logic for ASEAN House retail & exhibition layer
Self-Sustaining · Venue Hire + Membership
Asia House
New Cavendish Street, London
A membership organisation and venue that funds its own operation through event-space hire — hosting 200+ events per year for businesses, governments and civil society with no permanent government subsidy from its premises partner.
Commercial model for the ASEAN House convening space
Global Convening · Programming Calibre
Asia Society
New York / Hong Kong / London
A global organisation that convenes heads of state, CEOs and cultural leaders through a combination of public programming, corporate membership and government partnership — setting the convening standard that ASEAN House aspires to at Battersea.
Convening calibre and programming ambition benchmark
Year One Pilot — Phased & Low-Risk

The Named Ask:
A Scoped Pilot

The ask is deliberately phased and low-risk for BPSC. It does not request a permanent lease commitment on day one.

The pilot mirrors how BPSC itself has scaled celebrASIA year on year — building confidence through demonstrated performance rather than asking for an open-ended commitment before proof is in.
Element Proposal
Nations Week 2027 celebrASIA expanded to 5–7 days — launching the permanent ASEAN House footprint as the successor cultural anchor to the retired Winter Light Festival
Space One retail/exhibition unit (150–250 sqm, Electric Boulevard or Turbine Hall) + shared use of a bookable event room
Programming 10 monthly events across the five pillars, each hosted with a rotating embassy and named delivery partner
Commercial Discounted rent / revenue-share on the unit — no direct BPSC cash sponsorship requested in Year One
Delivery Timeline
Q4
2026
Joint scoping session with BPSC Asset Management and Events team — confirm space, dates and commercial terms for the pilot.
Q1
2027
Embassy alignment via the ASEAN London Group. Confirm Mekong-bloc participation (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Timor-Leste) through Thavoine Singharaj's convening offer.
Q2
2027
Steering group formalised. Fit-out and partner agreements for the permanent unit. First two monthly events piloted ahead of Nations Week.
Sept
2027
Nations Week 2027 launch. Flagship event marks the formal opening of the permanent ASEAN House footprint. All 11 ASEAN missions. Full press and diplomatic programme.
Oct–Aug
2027–28
Full monthly programme runs. Quarterly reviews against footfall/dwell-time case. Joint decision on Year Two footprint expansion in August 2028.
The Footfall & Dwell-Time Case

In BPSC's Own Terms

This case is built on BPSC's own published metrics and language — not external assumptions. The strongest argument is BPSC's own data pointed at a gap in its own calendar.

176K+
celebrASIA 2025 visitors in 3 days
BPSC press release 2025
108min
BPSC benchmark for a highly engaged visitor
BPSC dwell time benchmark
3rd
consecutive year of record attendance growth
celebrASIA 2024–2026
11
ASEAN missions — zero cold introductions needed
All engaged partners
Five Arguments — BPSC's Own Framing
1
celebrASIA already outperforms most single events in BPSC's calendar on footfall. The only variable this proposal changes is duration — from three days to a managed twelve-month presence.
2
BPSC's leasing strategy explicitly rewards cultural moments and "social-first" activations with existing engaged audiences over passive retail. celebrASIA is the largest proof point of this thesis on-site.
3
The Winter Light Festival retirement was framed by BPSC as making room for "new and exciting visitor experiences." ASEAN House is a direct, ready-made answer to that stated need.
4
celebrASIA's growth trajectory — inaugural year to 176,000+ visitors in year three — demonstrates compounding demand. A permanent footprint converts that annual curve into a monthly recurring one.
5
108-minute average dwell time is BPSC's benchmark for a highly engaged visitor. Japan House-model destinations are built specifically to produce long, repeat-visit dwell time — the commercial profile BPSC says it wants more of.

One Meeting.
Twelve Months.
Eleven Nations.

The ask, in one line: a scoping meeting with the celebrASIA team at BPSC Asset Management and Events — the team that has already built the proof of concept for this proposal, three times over.

Request the Scoping Meeting →
Download Full Proposal
Prepared by
Invest in ASEAN (IIA), 25 Fair Street, London SE1
For
BPSC Asset Management & Events
Date
August 2026 — Strategic proposal for discussion
Contact
hello@seacomcic.org