Pick of the Open House weekend

The Stephen Lawrence Centre, Brookmill Road, SE8. Opened earlier this year, a facility that honours the murdered teenager’s architectural aspirations by providing a space for teaching and mentoring urban youths. Despite the perforated-steel cladding and sharp, angular forms, it’s surprisingly welcoming up close. The giant glass artwork by Chris Ofili was sadly vandalised a few months ago, but has now been replaced. Photograph: Lyndon Douglas/PR

Michaelis house, 95a Oxford Gardens, W10. It barely pokes above street level, but Alex Michaelis’ house is a great example of elegant design under restrictive London conditions. He even finds room for a swimming pool and a children’s slide inside. It’s all dauntingly white and minimal, and feels more spacious than most above-ground houses. No wonder Michaelis is converting David Cameron’s basement up the road. Photograph: Stanhope/Hufton and Crow

London 2012 Olympic Park/Olympic Park viewing gallery, Orchard Rd, E10/Waddington Rd, E15. Admittedly there’s little to see here right now, but it’s probably the most interesting building site in the country - 2.5 square km where Britain might find even more Olympic glory than they did in Beijing, with designs by Zaha Hadid, Michael Hopkins and Foreign Office among others. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty

The Willis Building, 51 Lime Street, EC3M. The Gherkin was a perennial Open House favourite, but it's not featured in the programme this year. Instead, why not check out Norman Foster’s latest glitzy corporate headquarters? It’s not nearly as flash, unfortunately, but you can always pop into the Lloyd’s building next door when you’re done. Photograph: PR

Taberner House and Alsop's Third City vision, Park Lane, Croydon. Climb up to the 18th floor of this 1960s modernist monolith and look out over a landscape set for transformation. As London’s “third city” Croydon has big plans, to the tune of a £3.5bn regeneration scheme. You can also see Will Alsop’s vision of what it might look like: a green, buzzing mini-metropolis of funky buildings, including a “vertical Eden Project” – nothing like it is now, in other words. Photograph: PR

Maggie’s centre, Charing Cross hospital, Fulham Palace Road, W6. The enlightened cancer care charity has commissioned some great architects around the country, including Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. Their first London facility, designed by Richard Rogers’ practice, opened this April in the grounds of Charing Cross hospital. The exterior is bright but inside it’s crisp, calm and light, with glass, wood and exposed concrete. Photograph: Richard Anderson/PR

Coin Street neighbourhood centre, Stamford St, SE1. Coin Street’s proposal for a 43-storey apartment tower on the South Bank has been attracting all the attention, but this little addition to their architecturally distinguished neighbourhood deserves a closer look. Combining offices, childcare facilities and other functions, it’s filled with colour inside and out, and complements Coin Street's standard-setting Iroko housing behind (also by Haworth Tompkins). Photograph: PR

Westminster Academy, Harrow Rd, W2. Frontrunner for this year’s Stirling Prize, this new, business-oriented school reinvents the teaching environment as a junior corporate headquarters - for better or worse. It’s a far cry from most schools' stuffy Victorian precedents, with an airy atrium, fresh colours and lively graphics, all achieved on a minimal budget. Photograph: Tim Soar/PR

Container city/Trinity Buoy wharf, Orchard Place Leamouth, E14. A joyous example of eco-urbanism, made up of over 100 shipping containers converted into arts studios and apartments. Kids can come here and design their own fantasy container city in workshops this weekend. Parents and grandparents might gravitate to London’s only lighthouse, the older brick buildings and the great views over the Thames. Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian

Bere studio/house, Poets Road, N5. Architect Justin Bere’s ecological house-office is one of a number of architects’ studios open to the public for Green Sky Thinking (24-26 September), a special event following on from Open House in which young architects will show and tell about new ideas in sustainable design. Photograph: PR