London Design Festival is underway and features a long list of events that are sprawled across the capital. Here are five for you to see.
The 17th annual celebration plays host to a number of must-see installations and talks before it closes on September 22. Deciding where to start and what to see can be a daunting prospect so we have picked five must-see highlights for you.
Please Be Seated by Paul Cocksedge
Finsbury Avenue Square, Broadgate
British Land’s Landmark project is their most ambitious commission to date and is designed to respond to the changes of the community. British designer Paul Cocksedge has used repurposed scaffolding boards to create a design which features curves that people can sit on and walk under. Based in Broadgate, this has transformed London’s largest pedestrianised neighbourhood and is a must-see for anyone visiting London Design Festival.
Sea Things by Sam Jacob
Sea Things by Sam Jacob
V&A Museum, South Kensington
Sam Jacobs has designed an installation within the grand entrance to the V&A museum which highlights the threat ocean plastic poses to marine life. Using motion graphics, Jacobs has created an animation which is suspended from the ceiling above visitors’ heads. The story starts in 1907 to mark the launch of one of the first-ever commercial plastic products and ends in 2050, when the Ellen MacArthur Foundation believes there will be more plastic than marine life in the ocean. It was inspired by a pattern by Charles and Ray Eames in the V&A’s Textiles and Fashion Collection.
Void – designed by Dan Tobin Smith and The Experience Machine, in partnership with Gemfields
Collins Music Hall, Islington
This multi-sensory installation invites visitors to become part of an immersive experience that creates a galaxy using rubies and emeralds. It highlights the blurring boundaries between nature and design using photographs of the stones that are projected onto the walls.
Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper
Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper
Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross
Martino Gamper’s enormous structure mimics the exterior of a night club and is taking over Coal Drops Yard in Kings Cross. While there is a bouncer outside and you can hear music as you queue for the ‘disco’, the exterior is a façade and there is nothing inside. It is designed to question the temporary nature of design and the festival itself.
Global Design Forum
V&A Museum, South Kensington
This series of talks and workshops will feature the biggest names in contemporary design. The keynote speech will be delivered by iconic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood on September 10 at 4:40pm. She will be discussing the fashion industry’s grapple with the sustainability crisis and the role of activism in designing a sustainable future.