London Design Festival 2019

London Design Festival (LDF) returns for its 17th year this September 2019 with an inspiring programme of events and installations across the city.

Initially established in 2003 by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans, LDF brings together a global community of designers, artists, architects and the creative industries with a vision to celebrate and promote London a design capital.

Each year, a LDF designated jury selects four eminent people who have made a major contribution to design in the UK. This year the winners are British Designer Tom Dixon, creative director, curator and educator Daniel Charny, emerging designer and engineer Ross Atkin and designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood.

 

V&A, The Festival Hub:

This year marks 11 years with the V&A as a collaborating partner and the official Festival hub. During the Festival, the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance will once again play host to a series of specially-commissioned projects by internationally-renowned designers, a day of design and the yearly Global Design Forum.

 

Legacy

Sir John Sorrell, Chairman of London Design Festival, has invited leaders of London’s cultural institutes to collaborate with some of the world’s most prolific designers to create a ‘Legacy’ piece of design –an object of personal or professional relevance to them that they would like to pass on to a family member or the institute they currently lead afterwards.

The pieces -10 in total- will be beautifully made in American red oak, a sustainable wood species that grows abundantly in the American hardwood forests,and will be fabricated at Benchmark Furniture in Berkshire.The pieces will be presented as a group exhibition at the V&A in September, after which they will relocate to the homes or institutes of each of the commissioners.

 

 

Sea Things by Sam Jacobs

A new installation within the grand entrance to the V&A which highlights the need to rethink the global plastics system; to consider its full lifetime journey; and to design future-use into every product. The concept, inspired by a pattern by Charles and Ray Eames in the V&A’s Textiles and Fashion collection, will take the form of a large scale two-way mirrored cube suspended above visitors with an animated motion graphic. In addition, Jacob will remake seven water vessels from the V&A’s Collection using recycling and experimental post plastic materials.

 

Sacred Geometry by Rony Plesl

Rony Plesl ́s unique glass installation draws inspiration from fire and wood -key components of glass making- and from the idea of Sacred Geometry, a universal language organising all visible and invisible reality according to basic geometrical principles. Made of uranium glass, the large pieces are 3D printed with a pioneering technology without any limitations in regards to design or form, giving cast glass the same possibilities as bronze for example.

 

Avalanche by Matthew Mccormick

Canadian designer Matthew McCormick fuels thoughtful introspection on the effects of climate change through his experiential exhibit, Avalanche, conspicuously positioned on the landing of the V&A’s British Gallery. Inherently out of place in the classically historic space, Avalanche is strategically situated to provoke profoundly personal reactions from each visitor that passes through: a designer’s interpretation of a suspended moment in time where we are faced with a mindful revelation of our own mortality.

 

Affinity In Autonomy by Sony Design

Translating innovation into perceptual experiences is the theme for the creation of this interactive robotic pendulum located at the V&A’s Prince Consort Gallery. The independence and free-will of robotics is portrayed by its random movements. Human presence can be detected and recognition appears from within the kinetic motion. This conceptual piece endeavours to portray emotion and sensitivity, illustrating the enriched relationship possibilities for a new tomorrow. Sony Design believe that the relationship between humans and technology will evolve, through deeper understanding of Artificial Intelligence and its ability to display feelings.

 

 

Robin Hood Gardens by Do Ho Suh

In 2017, demolition began of Robin Hood Gardens, the Brutalist housing estate in Poplar, east London, completed in 1972 by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson. Its razing marked the end of a decade-long campaign to save the building, which was controversially denied listed status, and marked the start of a £300m redevelopment of the site and surrounding area. On the eve of destruction, the V&A salvaged a three-storey section of each facade and the interior fittings of two flats, as an internationally recognised example of Brutalism. The museum also commissioned South Korean artist Do Ho Suh, whose practice centres on the idea of home as both a physical structure and lived experience, to create a work in response to the architecture and interiors while the second of the two blocks, also due to be demolished, was still occupied.

Suh’s panoramic film is a meditation on home, memory and displacement within a physical structure that is on the verge of demolition, less than 50 years after the architects’ utopian vision was realised. Suh is interested in the “intangible quality” of Robin Hood Gardens as much as its architectural shell: the “energy, history, life and memory that has accumulated there”. The film ill be on view at the V&A’s Porter Gallery.

 

The Exhibition Road Day of Design: 22 September

In collaboration with neighbours in Albertopolis -Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Royal College of Art, Imperial College and Serpentine Gallery–the V&A will host a street festival that will look at the role design thinking can play in responding to the climate emergency. Students from the RCA will work with charities to build furniture from exhibition waste, upcycling material to create tables and seating designed in the fashion of the Enzo Mari Autoprogrettazione manual. A public feast will take place on this furniture using produce that would otherwise go to waste-each table will be hosted by an expert on sustainability, climate change, supply chains and other relevant disciplines for a day of sharing.

 

Global Design Forum

The Museum will also play host to London Design Festival’s thought leadership programme, Global Design Forum, which celebrates design with an inspirational lineup. Over 50 speakers from all corners of the global design community will share new perspectives on designing for a changing future. Highlights include keynote sessions with renowned global architect, Kengo Kuma, discussing his career and journey to date; Yves Behar speaking about his experience of how democratising design can help empower communities; and Deborah Riley, Production Designer and Art Director, Game of Thrones, on creating the sets for one of the world’s most watched shows. Additional speakers include Laurent Simon, Executive Creative Director, BBC Creative on the Pain and Gain of Creative Collaboration; a session chaired by Alexandra Deschamp-Sonsino, Author, Smarter Homes in conversation with Ross Atkin, Designer, and Suhair Khan, UK Project Lead, Google Arts & Culture; and Ben Parker, Made Thought, with Carole Collet, Director of Sustainable Innovation at LVMH, on Sustainability, Design and Brands.

The 2019 programme will explore the issues affecting the design industry itself but more importantly, how design can pave the way for workable solutions to some of the modern world’s most pressing challenges.

 

Landmark Project:

Please Be Seated by Paul Cocksedge

British designer Paul Cocksedge is transforming Finsbury Avenue Square. Located in the heart of Broadgate –a diverse hub connecting innovation and finance – the large-scale installation, fuses innovation and technology, and responds to the changing rhythm of the community. Its design features curves for people to sit on and walk under, further enhancing London’s largest pedestrianised neighbourhood. As part of the Festival, Broadgate will also collaborate with Shoreditch Design Triangle to host an exhibition and talks as well as a special Design Night in Finsbury Avenue Square.

 

 

 

Festival Commissions:

Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper at Coal Drops Yard

This one-off site-specific installation is a playful temporary addition to the King’s Cross architecture: a false facade of a disco with a fresh take on traditional cladding from the Italian Alps. Gamper’s concept is designed as a gateway within Coal Drops Yard and is inspired by the concept of a Potemkin village. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built to impress Empress Catherine II by her lover Grigory Potemkin during her journey to Crimea in 1787. The structure will have a low environmental impact, with all materials being either waste products, recycled or later repurposed.

 

Life Labyrinth by Patternity at Westminster Cathedral

The installation brings to life the healing powers of one of the most ancient geometric symbols on Earth. Based on a giant three-dimensional spiralling labyrinth formation, Life Labyrinth is a pattern-based journey that takes visitors on a personal meditative walking experience that is proven to have both psychological and physical health benefits. Surrounded with plants and graphic shapes, the space is a destination for quiet contemplation, creative inspiration and reconnection to self, amidst the hustle and bustle of London life.

 

Void by Dan Tobin Smith and The Experience Machine at Collings Music Hall, Islington

An immersive experience, travelling through a series of large-scale projections that showcase the expanded space inside gemstones and map the blurring boundaries between nature and design.

 

Special Projects:

Idiosincratico by Martino Gamper at Coal Drops Yard

To coincide with Martino Gamper’s London Design Festival Commission– Disco Carbonara at Coal Drops Yard – Samsung presents Idiosincratico: an exposition of the designer’s creative practice. Presenting three significant projects, Idiosincratico gives insight into Gamper’s creative process – exploring his distinctive and playful approach to dissembling and reinventing familiar domestic objects. At the heart of each of Gamper’s projects is the notion of thinking through making and examining how process informs the physical outcome.

 

Wallala Lounge by Camille Wallala at South Moulton Street

Camille Walala returns to London Design Festival in a characteristically colourful manner. The French-born designer has been commissioned to energise and enliven South Molton Street, in the heart of London’s West End, with a bold and beautiful family of street furniture. Combining head-turning colour and geometric shapes in monumental proportions, the result is Walala Lounge, a set of 10 sculptural benches, accompanied by planters – some freestanding and some integrated into the structure of the benches – and a series of oversized flags that will be strung, bunting-style, from shopfront to shopfront, converting the area into an immersive corridor of colour.

 

 

Fairs:

100% Design
18–21 September, Olympia London, W14 8UX

2019 marks the 25th anniversary of 100% design, one of the UK’s leading design trade events. This year’s show will present a stellar line-up of more than 400 exhibitors as well as an unrivalled talks programme featuring some of the biggest names across architecture and design, including David Rockwell and marcel wanders.

 

Designjunction
19–22 September, King’s Cross, N1C

From the world’s leading designers to undiscovered brands, designjunction brings together the newest and most forward-thinking furniture, lighting and accessory designs of 2019. Whether you’re searching for inspiration, sourcing items for a project or looking to connect with some of the best in the industry, designjunction puts visitors at the heart of the creative community.

 

Focus /19
15–20 September, Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, SW10 0XE

For six days, Focus/19 at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour is the design event for excellence. Welcoming trade professionals and design enthusiasts from around the globe, the programme is dedicated to inspiring, informing and delivering the best in worldclass talent. This year, there are more product launches and showroom openings than ever, alongside an abundance of talks,
demonstrations, workshops, discovery tours and guest pop-ups. See the latest collections, meet established makers, emerging innovators and skilled artisans, and connect with influential tastemakers from 120 showrooms and 600-plus international brands. This abundance of design diversity and experience is extraordinary and reflects design centre, Chelsea harbour’s commitment to creativity and connection. Entrance is free.

 

 

London Design Fair
19–22 September, Old Truman Breery

Located in the creative heart of east London, the London design fair is a four-day event that brings together 550 exhibitors from over 40 countries. As one of the most international destinations of London design festival, over 29,000 influential retail buyers, architects, interiors designers, press, designers and design-conscious members of the public attend to see and specify the very latest furniture, lighting, textiles, materials and conceptual installations from around the world.

The London Design Festival runs 14-22 September at different venues throughout the city.