The Dezeen team is reporting live from London Design Festival, which takes place 14-22 September. Read on for all the coverage from Monday 16 September.
5:00pm – spoilt for choice!
Looking for a bit of retail therapy, social editor Clara Finnigan dropped into The Hoxton in Shoreditch, to see The Yinka Ilori Objects Pop-Up return to east London a second time.
The pop-up shop showcased British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori’s latest collection in his distinctive, colourful patterned style. Now what to buy…
4:45pm – it’s coming together
After a busy weekend installing the Design You Can Feel exhibition, the Dezeen team is spending the day filming interviews with the six designers in the exhibition.
Here, Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser is chatting to designer Giles Miller about his Awaken installation as part of the show. Keep an eye on Dezeen over the coming weeks for the films!
4:30pm – more vases
As part of Reclaimed: The Silo Collection, 22 London ceramicists have created objects using an experimental glaze, developed by local practice Studio Omelette and Mexican potter Lucía Ocejo using waste wine bottles from zero-waste restaurant Silo.
In line with the idea of eliminating waste, the resulting pieces are displayed on a scenography made of reclaimed materials including plinths made from wine boxes and podiums made from kiln shelves.
The next step, Studio Omelette founder Cécile Dumetier hopes, is to use the glaze to create tableware for the actual Silo restaurant, run by chef Douglas McMaster.
“For him, it’s like what could we do next?” Dumetier told Dezeen. “Because they’re going through so much wine, so much of this raw material that can be used by so many artists or makers.”
“It’s a call to action: if someone wants to use material, reach out because we would love to provide it and you can experiment and do something with it.”
3:30pm – vase maker extraordinaire
Workshop sessions are now well underway at Making Room, an exhibition in the Brompton Design District curated by Andu Masebo and Mikey Krzyzanowski. The show aims to shine a light on the process of making, with visitors involved in crafting furniture and objects that will be used here throughout the week.
Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson popped in on Saturday afternoon to see the results of day one’s workshops, which included stool-making with Masebo and Krzyzanowski and vase-making with Berlin-based artist Anna Zimmermann.
She ended up making her own vase, a leopard-print-style design that is now on display next to Masebo’s woodgrain-inspired effort.
These vases will come in very handy tomorrow, with Galerie Navy scheduled to host a floral sculpture workshop.
Other workshops in the progamme include hook-making with Mitre & Mondays and a drawing class with Daniel Schofield.
3:00pm – vandalism
Sad news from King’s Cross where the Juicy Booth is closed following an act of vandalism at the weekend. According to designer Annie Frost Nicholson, who created the installation in collaboration with K67 Berlin and The Loss Project, the sensory booth will be open again for visitors tomorrow.
2:30pm – pizza time
Next stop for Jennifer Hahn – zero-waste restaurant Silo in Hackney Wick (with interiors by Nina+Co) to see a collection of ceramics glazed using the many many wine bottles consumed by the restaurants patrons.
Unfortunately, I’m not having lunch at the actual restaurant because journalists don’t have that kind of time or money (and also the restaurant isn’t serving food until Wednesday). So instead, I’m having pizza by the canal. There are worse ways to spend a Monday!
More on the exhibition on Dezeen soon.
2:00pm – sneak peek!
Also in east London, Dezeen co-CEO Benedict Hobson took a sneak peek at our Design You Can Feel exhibition in collaboration with Asus, which explores the properties and possibilities of Ceraluminum.
The exhibition features designers including Fernando Laposse, Giles Miller, Natural Material Studio, Niceworkshop and Studio Furthermore.
Opening tomorrow, the exhibition at Protein Studios in Shoreditch runs until Sunday. Come say hi!
1:15am – still no sponsor?
Jennifer Hahn’s one-person Lime bike tour continues…
12:45am – “flat-pack moments of rest”
Next stop on the bike tour is a mere stone’s throw from the Dezeen office in Haggerston. Set in the lobby of Leroy House, Indian studios Blurck and Dasein Lab have come together to share their first seating collection.
Named Tula after the Sanskrit word for equilibrium, the chairs are made from reclaimed London scaffolding planks balanced on top of chunks of salvaged slate from Delhi.
The result are what the studios call “flat-pack moments of rest”, held together completely without screws and relying instead on an elaborate system of tension cables like the kind you might see on a suspension bridge.
12:15am – planning ahead
For those of you still planning your week, we have rounded up the 10 key exhibitions and installations to visit during LDF.
We are also hosting a series of talks and events over the next three days in collaboration with Buster + Punch, Molteni&C, Autex Acoustics and Ustwo, as well as a major exhibition with ASUS. There’s still time to sign up!
11:55am – are you sitting comfortably?
A short skip across the street for Douglas Jardim is the Chair of Virtue exhibition at One Hundred Shoreditch, which includes five sculptural chairs created by UK-based makers that celebrate form and design.
The Blob Chair by Sophia Colman is a particular standout.
Responding to the theme of Natural Forms, the chair reflects the components of a red blood cell among other elements of the human body.
Judging from looks alone, The Blob Chair does what it says on the tin. Whether it’s pleasing or not to sit on, however, is a mystery.
11:15am – crocodiles and corkscrews
Back in east London, editorial intern Douglas Jardim popped into Blond Laboratory – a touring exhibition from the London design studio which debuted earlier this year in Milan.
The exhibition in Shoreditch showcased the work of seven designers who take inspiration from objects that are no longer manufactured or readily available, highlights include a balancing lighter by Swiss-French designer Julie Richoz of Julie Richoz Studio held down by weights and a whisk-turned-candelabra made from springs by Jon Marshall from Pentagram.
Some interesting object pulled from the Blond Artefacts archive are also on display, including a rather snappy crocodile-shaped grater. It’s as sharp as their teeth!
11:00am – Tuscany in Mayfair
Fresh from Helsinki Design Week, design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield has headed straight to Mayfair’s Gallery Fumi, where Tuscan designer Francesco Perini is presenting a collection of timber furniture.
Nucelo is Perini’s first solo show at the gallery, featuring organic-shaped oak furniture inlaid with materials including veiny marble, smooth onyx and robust steel and brass.
Perini was informed by desert roses – naturally occurring crystal clusters that form in harsh weather conditions (which also informed Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar in Doha) for the collection.
All of the furniture was handmade in the designer’s workshop in Tuscany.
10:30am – LDF bike tour
Design editor Jennifer Hahn is leading a one-person Lime bike tour (sadly not sponsored… yet!) around east London this morning, where there are lots of fun things happening this year.
The first stop was Light in Motion, an exhibition of experimental lighting designs from nine emerging designers and engineers, initiated by London studio Kai Lab.
Many of the works on show play with indirect light, including Sophie Mei Birkin’s swampy Biomaterial Submersions, which feature foraged plant matter immortalised in a bio-resin, and Duncan Carter’s algorithmically optimised 10,000 Tiny Suns.
A personal highlight was a massive metallic flower, that casts different reflections as it robotically unfurls its petals.
It was created by Heyl & Van Dam for the Ice Melt Tour of American psych rock band Crumb, of which I’m a huge fan (I recommend listening to Ghostride, which will be the soundtrack for the next leg of the cycle tour).
9:30am – the morning after the weekend before…
Following a super buzzy weekend we are back reporting on this year’s London Design Festival (LDF). Dezeen’s design editor Jennifer Hahn, design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield, editorial assistant Starr Charles, social editor Clara Finnigan and editorial intern Douglas Jardim are on the ground in London reporting live.
Catch up on what happened on the opening day here including an installation by Marshmallow Laser Feast for Johnnie Walker. And to keep you up to date on all the festival activities Dezeen Events Guide has created an LDF guide, highlighting the key events at the festival this year.
To stay up to date, follow Dezeen live: London Design Festival, taking place from 14-22 September 2024. Dezeen Events Guide has created a LDF guide, highlighting the key events at the festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Read about everything that happened on the opening day (13 September).
All times are London time.
The lead image is by Jennifer Hahn.
