Highlights from London Design Festival 2022

Celebrating 20 years, the festival returned to the capital on 17-25 September 2022, with an exciting line up of events, installations and thought leadership. Typical for this huge festival, those of us with a few hours to explore had to cherry pick, finding plenty of inspiration across this year’s record 12 design districts. As usual, the festival had a strong sustainability focus, with major landmark projects, talks and events focusing on climate change, new ways of recycling and reusing materials, as well as social sustainability and wellbeing.

Expanding further across the capital in 2021, Greenwich now plays host to its very own District, featuring Design London at Magazine and dazzling creative hub, London Design District. The latter celebrated its first birthday this September, with an action-packed week-long programme during LDF, opening the doors to its dynamic community. Conceived and developed by Knight Dragon and designed by eight leading architects, Design District’s 16 unique buildings beautifully come together to create a permanent home for a diverse range of studios and creatives, as well as co-working space Bureau.

Design District was also the site of the impressive Henge installation, created by Stanton Williams Architects and LSI Stone. Formed from 150-million-year-old Jurassic limestone, the project created a space separate from the outside world and welcomed users to gather together to pause, connect and relax. Design London returned to Magazine for a second year, bringing together a myriad of brands and designers at the festival’s largest fair. Featuring the usual mix of brands from Ton to Artemide, a wide range of topics we recovered at the Design Discussions talks programme, including an audience with colour expert Justine Fox and the team from office S&M, considering the role colours play when designing exciting and inclusive spaces.

Westward, perhaps the most talked about (and most photographed) project was Sabine Marcelis’ ‘Swivel’ installation at St Giles Square: very solid chunks of Solid Nature marble shaped into chairs that fit in neatly against the Brutalist tower in the background, providing us with a moment of joy as we realised the chairs could, in fact, swivel.

New fixture Material Matters found its home at the Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf. The former factory setting remains unchanged after all these years and acted as a perfect backdrop for a range of brands and exciting newcomers from the world of surface and furniture design. Themes obvious throughout the exhibition included sustainability, circularity and – of course – craft, as well as a distinctive focus on Nordic design, including new designs from Norwegian favourites Fora Form.

“One of the joys of launching Material Matters has been the fact that we can throw the spotlight on a huge variety of designers and makers determined to re-examine our perceptions of waste and question the system that produces it. It gives you a glimmer of hope for the future,” says Material Matters co-founder Grant Gibson.

Material highlights included SolidWool – a material that combines wool and bio resin to create a beautiful, smooth material the manufacturer compares to fiberglass. The wool comes from Herdwick sheep found primarily in the Lake District, which is wiry and dark and too coarse to use for clothing. Nature Squared is an ethical design brand with a mission to create innovative sustainable surfaces using natural materials, including seeds, bark and feathers. For the fair, the company focused on eggshells, investigating how a material that often ends up inland fill can be applied from traditional inlay to moulding techniques, as well as its range of tiles, CArrele.

Back in our usual stomping ground, Mix Managing Editor Harry McKinley hosted Håkan Nordin, Bolon’s Head of Sustainability and Co-Founder of Greenpeace Sweden, to talk all things sustainability at the flooring brand’s Clerkenwell showroom. They delved into Bolon’s sustainability journey to date, its vision for the future and explored the broader topic of the climate emergency and how architects and designers can each make a change – even the smallest steps making a difference, Nordin noting.

Having worked in sustainability for four decades, Håkan is a pioneer in his field. He told the audience that he thinks of sustainability as a journey rather thana destination, and that if they can do one thing to make their projects more sustainable, designers should still be proud of this incremental change – while still working towards wider and more comprehensive impact. He espoused the importance of creating a ‘movement’, explaining that meaningful shifts will only be possible through collective action. Whilst there is still much work to be done, Håkan remains optimistic for the future.

Product Highlights

Holloway Li for Uma

Renowned design studio Holloway Li will reveal their debut furniture series in collaboration with Uma, a furniture brand producing objects that push the boundaries of fabrication. On display at The Market Building in Clerkenwell, Uma and Holloway Li presented T4, a first of its kind modular furniture collection. The playful design of the lightweight T4 composite modular sofa invited us to take a step back to the future and retrace the brash optimism of Cool Britannia and 90s television iconography.

umaobjects.com

New Collections from Offecct

offecct launched three new designs by a host of international designers – including teruhiroyAnAgihArA, ronjAreuberandpAulinedeltour. Brought to the UK for the first time, the new pieces will be on display – along with other latestcollections – in a specially commissioned exhibition by one of Offecct’s long-standing collaborators, British designer Michael Sodeau. A highlight included the Pauline sofa, designed by the late French designer, Pauline Deltour. Available as a two- or three-seater, the sofa has been introduced to complement her existing tailored armchair, upholstered and made from plywood and solid wood.

offecct.com

Barber Osgerby for Fredericia

Scandinavian brand Fredericia has launched the multifunctional Plan Collection in collaboration with design duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. This flexible and welcoming series of chairs and tables is suitable for modern working, dining, and living, combining industrial design with materiality, tactility, and crafted details. Each component of the collection is prepared for end-of-use disassembly and ease of possible future reparations, available in the newly launched Kvadrat Really Textile Tabletops.

fredericia.com

Waste to Wonder

Spared by Volume Creative showcased new furniture and lighting made from waste at Material Matters. The start-up has been busy during its first year, with commissions from Virgin Voyages, Dodds & Shute and a number of UK interior and architectural practices. For the bespoke and commissionable ‘Disc’ tabletops (pictured), pattern and colour are shown through unexpected waste materials; masonry, plastic bottle tops, plastic shampoo bottles, seafood shells and coffee grinds.

volumecreative.co.uk

After a shaky return post-pandemic, this year’s festival arrived with important messages and a chance to reengage with the full spectrum of creative design. And what is LDF, if not a chance to interact, play and discover what London’s iconic design scene has to offer.