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31st August 2019
Zetteler’s guide to LDF 2019
Buckle up, this year’s London Design Festival looks set to be a good one. With an increasing interest in environmental and social issues, plus some very fun projects to boot, here are the exhibitions, talks and events we can wait to see this year. Only a few sleeps left!
Zetteler exhibitions
Brompton Design District: Nature/Nurture
Various locations
14–22 September 2019
Known for its thoughtful programming and lean towards sustainability, Brompton Design District this year focuses on how designers can encourage flora and fauna to flourish in urban environments with the theme Nature/Nurture. Dotted around various venues in the West London hub you’ll find animal habitats designed by Goldsmith’s Interaction Research Studio, Material Architecture Lab and Marlene Huissoud; an exploration of the relationship between masks and identity at SEE••DS (featuring designers Nathalie Du Pasquier, Jochen Holz, Martino Gamper, Michael Marriott and Soft Baroque); water-purifying tiles made from micro-algae; a new drinking fountain by Michael Anastassiades; a biomimicry-inspired pavilion by Jorge Penadés and much more.
The Conran Shop x Sella Concept: Ad Infinitum
Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, SW3 6RD
14–22 September 2019
Inspired by Mexican architect Luis Barragán and the timelessness of The Conran Shop’s Modernist classics, Sella Concept has transformed the windows of this design institution into a colourful adventure of geometry and texture. The installation aims to show how design approaches run through history by echoing four icons and contemporary pieces through mirrored surfaces, cut-outs and floating walls. Make your way to Chelsea on Thursday 19 September to celebrate this year's LDF.
The Conran Shop x Hauser & Wirth
55 Marylebone High Street, Marylebone, W1U 5RB
14–22 September 2019
At the Conran Shop in Marylebone, international gallery Hauser & Wirth exhibits design pieces and limited editions created and inspired by some of the world’s most esteemed artists. See work by Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Paul McCarthy and Dieter Roth alongside Conran’s new season edit. Join Conran on Wednesday 18 September for the opening party.
Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council
London Design Fair, Truman Brewery, E1 6QR
19–22 September 2019
Based in Sharjah in the UAE, Irthi is an initiative that brings together traditional craft with contemporary designers. It’s educational programmes offer women in the emirates opportunities to hone and market their immense skills, as well as offering entrepreneurial training to the next generation of designers. At London Design Fair, Irthi will showcase their first product line,a series of collaborations between makers from the Bidwa programme and an international squad of designers. Expect seating by Ghaya Bin Mesmar and Mermelada Estudio, Misbah jewellery by Irthi’s trainees and Pakistan-based, mother/daughter-led Lél (which supports Afghani artisans displaced by war), and explorations in Murano glass by Fatima Al Zaabi and Venice-based architect Matteo Silverio.
S Molton Passage, W1K 5RR
14–22 September 2019
Queen of pattern Camille Walala transforms South Molton Passage into a colourful place for meeting, socialising or taking a breather this LDF. We expect the installation, which will remain in place until September 2020, features 11 benches, flower pots and flags strung across the street, to be an Instagram favourite.
Fenton House, Hampstead Grove, NW3 6SP
12 September – Spring 2020
Designer Gitta Gschwendtner was invited by National Trust to create a design intervention in the charming Fenton House. Gitta’s response Please Sit sees Michael Marriott, Frith Kerr, Carl Clerkin, Maisie Broadhead and Nina Tolstrup presenting new seating designs alongside Gitta herself. Each of the designers have responded to aspects of the 17th-century merchant house, shedding new light on this stunning property. This exhibition invites visitors to sit down and take in the surroundings of Fenton House in the hope of a different, more natural experience of history.
2b Vyner Street, E2 9DG
16 September – 23 October 2019
Modern Art Hire (M.A.H) was set up by interior stylist Laura Fulmine as a way for photographers, filmmakers and stylists to hire contemporary art and sculpture for shoots or temporary projects. This LDF it makes its first foray into commissioning design with a series of five furniture pieces created by London and Paris-based duo dellostudio. With references like Greek architecture and The Flintstones, dellostudio has created a playful, unexpected range with tonnes of personality.
London Design Fair, Truman Brewery, E1 6QR
19–22 September 2019
Made by combining recycled marble flour, marble chips and pieces of broken slabs, Altrock is a terrazzo-like material made in London by designer Robin Grasby. For LDF, Robin will be exhibiting Altrock in an array of colour combinations across 3D forms and surfaces, showcasing the true capabilities of the material.
Zetteler talks and events
The Hour Glass, 279-283 Brompton Road, SW3 2DY
14 September, 3pm
London-based organisation Creative Conscience works to encourage creatives to apply their talents to socially valuable projects, inspiring and enabling people to change their lives, and the lives of those around them, for the better. In this talk, a number of the Creative Conscience team discuss how the next generation of designers are responding to the challenge of socially valuable design.
Fenton House, Hampstead Grove, Hampstead, London NW3 6SP
17 September, 6-8pm
Head to Fenton House on Tuesday 17 September at 6pm to meet the designers behind Please Sit. Gitta Gschwendtner, Nina Tolstrup, Michael Marriott and Carl Clerkin will discuss their inspiration and the process behind their site-specific setting designs and encourage you to explore the new perspectives they present. Booking essential, book your place here.
100% Design, Olympia London, W14 8UX
18 September, 3pm
Stockholm-based Note Design Studio is not your average architecture and design firm. Idea-led and non-hierarchical, the studio now comprises a team of 14 designers who pool their talents as the needs of the project – and their own curiosity – requires. In this talk OnOffice editor Jessica-Christin Hametner speaks with Note Design Studio founder Johannes Carlstrom.
PearsonLloyd: Squashed: People, Proximity, and Public Space (Brompton Design District)
In conversation with Camille Walala
20 South Molton Street, Mayfair, W1K 5QE
16 September, 5-6pm
31 Thurloe Place, SW7 2HQ
19 September, 4pm
As urban populations continue to grow, how can design respond to our ever-increasing proximity to one another? A talk hosted as part of Brompton Design District’s programme will look at how creatives can can design for people, proximity, public and semi-public space in a way that is functional and has character. The talk will be moderated by Oli Stratford, editor-in-chief of Disegno, with Luke Pearson of PearsonLloyd among the speakers.
designjunction, Kings Cross, London, N1C
20 September, 1pm
The talks programme at this year’s designjunction asks how design should respond to some of the world’s more pressing issues. In this lunchtime talk Stockholm-based Note Design Studio discusses its approach.
20 South Molton Street, Mayfair, W1K 5QE
16 September, 5-6pm
Join Camille Walala to celebrate the opening of Walala Lounge. Hosted by Dezeen’s Tom Ravenscroft, Camille will share her inspirations for her work and how her ideas are transformed into real-life pieces. The evening will be followed by a drinks reception and will offer the opportunity to meet Camille herself. RSVP to Grace@zetteler.co.uk.
The best of the rest: exhibitions
Victoria and Albert Museum
14–22 September
Fresh from designing the new Material Institute in New Orleans, Assemble brings to the V&A’s tapestry rooms an exhibition of suits made by Big Chief Demond Melancon of the Young Seminole Hunters Mardi Gras Indians – the first time his work has been exhibited outside the United States. As well as witnessing the incredible beadwork and embroidery that goes into the suits (made for the city’s huge Mardi Gras celebrations at Easter), the exhibition will give insight into the inspiration African communities took from indigenous people in America, and how the Mardi Gras suits have been used for symbolism and to tell stories.
Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, N1C 4AA
14 September – 27 October 2019
Inspired by increasingly urgent social and environmental pressures, this exhibition of graduate projects aims to showcase proposal to make the world fairer and more sustainable. Work will span a wide range of disciplines, and will be accompanied by a public outreach programme and sustainable incubation workshops.
108 Lower Stable Street, N1C 4DR
18–22 September 2019
Liverpool-based, community-centred ceramics studio Granby Workshop – founded by the architecture collective Assemble – returns to Coal Drops Yard with a pop-up shop and installation dedicated to its latest collection: a range of ceramic tableware made entirely from waste. The collection has been a long time in the making and is the result of extensive research carried out by the studio. Tests and experiments that informed the final designs will be on display at the shop, alongside the finished range. A small number of prototypes and one-off pieces will also be available to buy.
If you’re not in London during the Festival, you can get yourself a mug from the collection via a Kickstarter that launches on 18th September. The idea being that money raised from the Kickstarter will allow the workshop to scale up its production facilities and produce the rest of the range.
28 Redchurch Street, E2 7DP
17–22 September 2019
Dutch designer Bertjan Pot is known for his playful and whimsical designs, often characterised by pops of colour. His latest work is no different. The Incredible House of Cards is a modular sculpture, crafted from G.F Smith paper, that when assembled creates an optical illusion that distorts the viewer’s perception of colour. Commissioned by Modern Design Review, the Incredible House of Cards is the star of the show at Hem at Play, an installation that features 100 limited edition Hem products.
9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG
14 September – November 2019
An exhibition at Sketch brings together architecture practice PiM.studio and design studios Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale and Studio Furthermore. Each practice was given the same simple brief: craft an experimental new work using one raw material. The material? A helping of 5,000 cylindrical pine dowels, previously used by Matter of Stuff in 2018 for a sculptural installation. The resulting designs are unsurprisingly diverse. While Brodie Neill created an intricate bench using a lattice-like technique reminiscent of traditional Japanese bamboo constructions, Studio Furthermore crafted a series of delicate sculptures finished with a textured sawdust surface.
Elephant West, 62 Wood Lane, W12 7RH
6 September – 6 October 2019
The concept of home is personal, political and – in the current age of social, economic and political upheaval – ever-changing. A series of immersive installations, on show at Elephant West, sees a handful of artists explore the meaning of home and how it might look in the future. From an imagined dining room that brings people together from different realities, times and places; to a bedroom that shields us from the digital world, the playful exhibition provides food for thought.
Truman Brewery, E1 6QR
19–22 September 2019
The Material of the Year exhibition is always a highlight at London Design Fair, showcasing the creative possibilities of a single material and, in doing so, broadening the discussion around sustainable and responsible design. This year the spotlight turns to biomaterials. Made from by-products often found in the agricultural industry, biomaterials can take many forms. The exhibition features products by four designers and are made from all manner of experimental materials – corn husks, potato waste, hemp, palm leaves and tobacco to name a few.
Best of the rest: talks and events
North Dome Design Centre
15-20 September 2019
This pop-up exhibition takes a look at the craftmanship behind Christopher Farr’s handmade Afghan rugs and artisan textiles. The exhibition is a result of a collaboration between the textile design studio and Turquoise Mountain, a non-profit organisation that works to preserve and regenerate historic areas and communities with a rich cultural heritage, in which skilled embroiderers based in Kabul responded to three Christopher Farr designs, applying their own creative interpretations. A series of live weaving demonstrations and talks will run alongside the exhibition.
Delfina Foundation, 29-31 Catherine Place, SW1E 6DY
18 September 2019, 5.15pm
London-based, India-influenced design studio Tiipoi hosts two talks this LDF. The first features Dal Chodha (the editor of non-seasonal fashion journal Archivist), Ruohong Wu (an artist who makes heart-melting textile pieces), Ishan Khosla (a graphic designer specialising in socio-cultural projects) and chair Riya Patel of Aram Gallery, and looks at object culture through the lens of reuse and sustainability. How will the ideas of invention, scientific innovation the technological process that underpinned modernism be challenges be challenged if our end goal is to make less and reuse more? Find out at this killer talk, programmed by Clove magazine’s Debika Ray.
Delfina Foundation, 29-31 Catherine Place, SW1E 6DY
18 September 2019, 6.30pm
Catch Debika Ray, editor of Clove magazine, chair a panel with architect Sam Jacob, designer Fernando Laposse, designer Ella Bulley and artist Shirley Bhatnager which explores the power of craft to influence the meaning of an object. Given that the aim of Tiipoli’s talks programme is to encourage a deeper and more critical questioning of creative practice, expect a thought-provoking discussion of how diverse and hybrid approaches to design culture can better reflect the plurality of our world.
designjunction, King’s Cross, N1C
19 September, 2pm
Dyslexia and its impact on everyday life is at the heart of this discussion.The panel will include designer Ab Rogers of ARD, product designer James Rokos, metal artist Simone ten Hompel and Cambridge University researcher Helen Taylor. The panel will explore the impact dyslexia has had on their lives, their experience of the education system, and, ultimately, how it has enabled – rather than hindered – their careers.
designjunction, King’s Cross, N1C
20 September, 11am
Design Can steering committee member, and director of Intoart, Ella Ritchie will join a panel organised by Living Etc to discuss how the design industry can become more inclusive. Also speaking will be ceramic designer Peter Ting, textile designer Eva Sonaike and Kevin Green co-founder of STORE STORE.
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Christopher Farr in association with Turquoise Mountain.
The map
Even if you know London like the back of your hand, navigating your way around the city when there are events and exhibitions popping up in every corner can be a headache. To make your life that little bit easier, and LDF a tad smoother, we’ve pinned everything we think is worthy onto one Google map.
Here are some of the other shows and exhibitions highlighted on our map:
Follow our LDF journey on Instagram at #ZettelerSelects
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