London Design Festival 2024 Preview

This new Shoreditch design hub, with a focus on independent British brands, gets its grand opening at LDF.  The four-storey building (once a Victorian factory specialising in waxing and shellacking), is home to several independent British brands including Tamart, the furniture company set up by architect Amos Goldreich to give life to the mid-century designs created by his parents; Minimalux, purveyors of lighting, objects and jewellery distilled down to their simplest forms; Lightmass, a new lightweight lighting brand that’s the brainchild of Raw Edges Studio’s Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay; and upholstered sofas and chairs from Cozmo.

Shoreditch’s compact proportions and high density of happenings make it ideal for a convivial morning or afternoon’s exploring, with the Shoreditch Design Triangle one of the week’s designated design districts. Great Eastern Street’s Hart Shoreditch hotel is being taken over by interior design and creative studio 2LG for Spectrum, an immersive installation that explores our emotional relationship with colour, with collaborators that include 3D-printed homewares brand Sheyn and digital artist Lucy Hardcastle.

The Tramshed (home to Vitra and Artek) is showing Vitra’s new sofa system as well as Artek furniture reimagined by Paul Smith; while contemporary gallery Ruup & Form’s Play show invites you to discover the joy of play through a series of artists, makers and objects including Tilde Grynnerup’s colourful relief wood sculptures. Over at SCP, design residencies will see Daniel Eatock and Sons of Beasley create furniture from a fully functioning workshop, alongside new launches from Faye Toogood, Erwan Bouroullec for Raawii and Joe Armitage.

Furniture designer Sebastian Cox is curating an installation that celebrates Tai Ping’s Biophilic rugs, displayed at the latter’s Fulham Road showroom. There are two strands to the rugs (a made-to-order collection and a prêt-à-porter collection under sister label Studio by Tai Ping) but the design intention is the same: only undyed, natural and sustainable materials have been used, with organic forms and landscapes providing the inspiration. This low-impact ethos (for example, with no dying, there is a lot less water used in the manufacturing process) chimes well with Cox’s environmentally conscious furniture, and the abstract rugs’ palette of beige, white and off-white is surprisingly compelling when paired with strikingly contrasting pile heights and other rug-making techniques.

De Gournay’s exquisite hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper provides the backdrop – and inspiration for – Tulipa, a show of new work by the French-American glass artist Sophie Lou Jacobsen. The pieces are a continuation of Jacobsen’s Giardini Segreto (‘secret garden’) series, featuring seemingly ephemeral blooms captured for a frozen moment in glass, across vases, candle sconces, pendant lights and mirrors. New York-based antique dealer Christopher Crawley and de Gournay’s in-house design team have worked with the artist on this immersive environment, which should whisk visitors away to the genteel European salons of the early 20th century.

Celebrating “the importance of materials and their ability to shape society,” Material Matters once again takes over the five floors of Oxo Tower’s Bargehouse. With 50 exhibitors there’s a lot to see, and a lot to think about too, with many positives to ponder on how new, old and repurposed materials may have a role in our future.

Bigger brands on show include Normann Copenhagen, whose Bit collection is made from 85-95% industrial and household plastic waste, while up and coming names to look out for include recent Central Saint Martins graduate Rosy Napper, who makes homewares from recycled ash. Aluminium manufacturer Hydro has asked seven designers including Max Lamb and Philippe Malouin to create a product from its aluminium made from recycled post-consumer scrap – the first time such a material has been available on an industrial scale. The top floor hosts regular talks pertinent to the show’s wider themes, including biomaterials; how to scale up the circular economy to big-construction scale; and the future of textile design.

Described by artist Pauline Loctin as “a celebration of freedom to create and express,” this large-scale installation will fill the glass-fronted entrance and atrium of co-working group Uncommon’s Holborn flagship, which opened in July and offers a social and wellness programme alongside more than 10,000 sqm of workspace.

Loctin’s medium of choice is intricately folded paper, which she tuns into work that is at times rigidly geometric, and at others wildly free and organic, and the installation should be hard to miss in vibratingly bright chartreuse and hot pink paper from GF Smith. As well as the public opening, there are two hands-on paper workshops happening, on for children on Saturday 14 September (bookable here), and one for adults on Tuesday 17 September (bookable here).

London-based studio Pearson Lloyd has turned its hand to everything from cruise-ship cabins to redesigning patients’ experience of A&E in NHS hospitals, always with a strong focus on R&D to drive change. This show at its Yorkton Workshops HQ is more about focusing on the here and now, though: it has asked names from across design sectors to nominate something that they think is well made, focusing on criteria such as low cost and ease of access: the results may make you reconsider the value of the humblest of objects, from the spring-loaded clothes-peg (nominated by Ineke Hans) to the classic foil-topped milk bottle (the choice of Pearson Lloyd co-founder Tom Lloyd).

Taking place within Wax Atelier’s community workspace in Stoke Newington’s Abney Park, this show is a celebration of a particular kind of natural resource: oils, waxes, resins, fibres and dyes that can be harvested from trees – without the need for felling – and their eco-systems. Wax Atelier’s candles and other objects (such as exquisitely lifelike flowers, made from candle production waste) will be on show alongside work such as CQ Studio’s bioresin sequins and new lighting made from a blend of pine resin and plant waxes, a collaboration between Wax Atelier and Jacob Marks.

The design journey from that first germ of an idea to the final object can be a fascinating (and sometimes painful) one, and this show goes behind the scenes to explain how designers get from one to the other. Spanning furniture, product design, ceramics, glass, textiles and architecture, the finished work of 10 designers and studios will be shown alongside prototypes, sketches, models and tests. Participants include Emma Louise Payne and Phoebe Stubbs, whose Meld lighting merges their two disciplines of ceramics and glassmaking; and Jan Hendzel Studio, whose British ash Drumlin desk makes it debut at the show. Many projects are self-initiated, with not everything eventually making it to market – but maybe that could change if they catch the eye of a big brand or manufacturer…

High-end European flagships are paired with experimental design, anchored by the festival’s official HQ, the V&A Museum, in the Brompton Design District. The district’s curator Jane Withers has set the theme as The Practice of Learning, amply summed up by the RCA’s show at 32a Thurloe Place: Curious Habits – Design as Learning showcases the work of the college’s design products graduates, highlighting “moments of insight, learning and change”. Making Room – A Workshop Space at 237 Brompton Road sees designers Andu Masebo and Mikey Krzyzanowski host a place where people can come together to collaborate and learn through experience, with furniture and lamp-making among the hands-on events. And at the V&A itself, Craft x Tech explores what happened when designers including Sabine Marcelis and Ini Archibong were invited to Japan’s Tohoku region to respond and develop its craft traditions, from ceramics to lacquerware.

Not forgetting those swish luxury brands: Italian furniture company Henge opens its doors for the first time at 254 Brompton Road; lighting showroom Occhio is unveiling its first chandelier; and Cassina celebrates 20 years of the Charlotte Perriand collection, with some unseen works and a special talk on 19 September featuring her daughter Pernette Perriand and biographer Jacques Barsac.

Based in Frome but venturing up to the city for the weekend, Somer is a modular timber furniture brand (with a focus on kitchens) that champions sustainability. The creation of William Floyd Maclean of architectural joinery firm WFM&Co, Somer uses sustainably sourced local timber, operates a no-waste model and operates a buy-back scheme to prevent future waste: its freestanding cabinets encourage adaptation over time, in contrast to built-in equivalents. The launch event, developed in collaboration with Assemble, explores the intersection between craft, design and sustainable British manufacturing.

William Morris’ former stomping ground, Walthamstow, is home to a thriving independent makers’ scene, centred around Blackhorse Lane and the Argall industrial area. A special trail sees many of them open their doors over the festival’s final weekend, with factories and studios welcoming in visitors curious to peek behind the scenes. Participants include the workshops of Isokon, whose collection spans over 90 years of modernist and contemporary furniture design; self-build bike pioneers the Bamboo Bicycle Club; and Turning Earth ceramics. Walks, talks and workshops delve deeper into the work of the neighbourhood’s talented pool of creatives.