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Highlights from London Design Festival 2016, From King's Cross to Kensington (and Everywhere in Between)

By Ray Hu - October 7, 2016

Designjunction: The Cubitt House LDF2016 was the occasion for designjunction's move to its new permanent home at King's Cross Creative Quarter. Ray Hu 1 of 42

Designjunction: Cubitt House The main hall was outfitted with a custom façade by London-based Satellite Architects in collaboration with Icons of Denmark, featuring Peter J. Lassen's modular GRID System. Ray Hu 2 of 42

Designjunction: TON The Chair Leaf, designed by Italian studio e-ggs for TON. Ray Hu 3 of 42

Designjunction: Noemi Saga Atelier & "Parquet" by COMP Brazil's Noemi Saga and Bermondsey-based COMP offered different takes on wooden furniture. Ray Hu 4 of 42

Designjunction: "Parquet" by COMP Cemal Okten and Martin Price launched the "Parquet" shelving system at designjunction. Ray Hu 5 of 42

Designjunction: "Parquet" by COMP (detail view) We were impressed by the elegant attachment system; see more here. Ray Hu 6 of 42

Designjunction: Modus presents "Who's Casper?" Longtime exhibitorsModus invited 16 designers to interpret the Michael Sodeau-designed Casper Stool for a charity auction to benefit refugees in partnership with NGO Movement on the Ground. Ray Hu 7 of 42

Designjunction: Johnston Twitter Machine by Florian Dussopt Transport for London celebrated the centennial of its iconic Johnston Typeface with a pop-up exhibition. Among the bespoke projects to mark the occasion, TfL and KK Outlet commissioned an interactive piece by Florian Dussopt. Ray Hu 8 of 42

Designjunction: Johnston Twitter Machine by Florian Dussopt Known as #inspiredby, the machine "printed" Tweets from visitors near and far. Ray Hu 9 of 42

Central Saint Martins presents "Brain Waves" The design school's well-curated graduation exhibition was a highlight of LDF2016. Check out the full coverage here. Ray Hu 10 of 42

Design Undefined at Clerkenwell London: Granby Workshop by Assemble Like many UK studios,Assemble turned up in multiple venues this year. Besides the "Ready Made Go 2" at the Ace Hotel, the Design Undefined exhibition included a selection of products from the Turner Prize-winners' Granby Workshop. Ray Hu 11 of 42

Design Undefined at Clerkenwell London: "Vinyl Lounge" by Camille Walala The balance of the projects at Clerkenwell London were immersive installations, such as the Vinyl Lounge by Camille Walala(see more here). Ray Hu 12 of 42

Show 13: Bare Minimum at Viaduct Work byPhilipp Mainzer & Farah Ebrahimi, Joe Colombo, Studio Pastoe, Jasper Morrison, and Maarten Van Severen, to name just a few... Ray Hu 13 of 42

Show 13: Bare Minimum at Viaduct At the entrance, works from Muller Van Severen's Wire series, as well as the LC95A chair by the late Maarten Van Severen (father of Hannes, half of MVS). Ray Hu 14 of 42

13sqm House by Studio Mama at Viaduct Viaduct also exhibited the 13sqm House by Studiomama. Ray Hu 15 of 42

SEE••DS Season 3: "No Ordinary Love" by Martino Gamper and Friends For its third exhibition, Kensington gallery SEE••DS invited Martino Gamper(with Actant Visuelle) to curate both the Special Event Exhibition (SEE•) and Design Store (•DS) spaces. Ray Hu 16 of 42

SEE••DS Season 3: "No Ordinary Love" by Martino Gamper and Friends For the Special Event Exhibition space, Gamper conducted a ceramics workshop with over a dozen designers, with the twist that the pieces are authored as a collective. The "Daze or Double" concept allows a collector to pay double to learn who created the piece. Ray Hu 17 of 42

SEE••DS Season 3: "No Ordinary Love" by Martino Gamper and Friends The more conventional Design Store featured work by the workshop participants, such as Faudet Harrison's "Transient" series, Harry Thaler's "Rosa" lamps, and Tiago Almeida's "100°" chairs. Ray Hu 18 of 42

Tate Modern: "Thingness" by Jasper Morrison A "concise survey" of the British designer's work was displayed in one the many free galleries at in the remarkable extension of the Tate Modern. Ray Hu 19 of 42

Tate Modern: "Thingness" by Jasper Morrison "Thingness" captures Morrison's perspective that design should aspire to anonymity (duly noting that he is among the best-known designers working today). Ray Hu 20 of 42

Breathless: The Essence of Glass The Czech Centre London teamed up with Prague studio Dechem and creative group OKOLO to produce an exhibition at the Garage in Brompton Design District. Ray Hu 21 of 42

Breathless: The Essence of Glass Each pedestal displayed a thematic collection of glassware, from utilitarian use cases to decorative flourishes. Ray Hu 22 of 42

Breathless: The Essence of Glass The main attraction, of course, was the performative element: An on-site furnace was manned by craftsmen, who led workshops and daily demonstrations with the likes of Tomas Alonso, Marcin Rusak, Michael Anastassiades, andStudio Swine. Ray Hu 23 of 42

Breathless: The Essence of Glass The well-executed exhibition was curated by OKOLO's Adam Štech. Ray Hu 24 of 42

The Garage at North Terrace (installation view) Downstairs, Arabeschi di Latte presented the "Brompton Cocktail" to mark the tenth anniversary of the design district, while Dirty Furniture magazine teamed up with the Shit Museum on "Toilet Break". Ray Hu 25 of 42

Toilet Break: Museo della Merda As it's blunt name suggests, the Shit Museum is dedicated to upcycling cow dung into a material they call "merdacotta". Ray Hu 26 of 42

Toilet Break: Museo della Merda Launched in 2015, the museum works with dairy farms in Lombardy to transform the waste material into a substance like terra cotta, cleansing it of toxic substances and mixing it in a 60-40 proportion with clay to produce merdacotta. Ray Hu 27 of 42

Toilet Break: Museo della Merda For "Toilet Break," the museum brought inventory of merdacotta products that were available for purchase. Ray Hu 28 of 42

Plinth presents "Florilegium SW7" by Jacques Nimki and "Herringbones" by Raw Edges Nimki transformed the ground floor of Plinth into a meadow; additional photos of the installations at the gallery are available here. Ray Hu 29 of 42

Ecotopia Inspired by Ernest Callenbach's 1975 novel of the same name, "Ecotopia" compiles proposals for realizing an ecological utopia. Ray Hu 30 of 42

Shade Volume by Marc Trotereau and Merel Karhof For Shade Volume, designers Marc Trotereau and Merel Karhof joined forces to upend (or at least experiment with) the form of the lampshade. Ray Hu 31 of 42

UMPRUM - Experimental Materials and Textiles The Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague — UMPRUM for short — presented an exhibition of work from students in the Studio of Textile Design, led by Jitka Škopová. Ray Hu 32 of 42

Opendesk and Ineke Hans present "Furniture Is Not Working" For "Furniture Is Not Working," open furniture platform Opendesk teamed up with Ineke Hans to invite four designers to take on the future of office furniture. Ray Hu 33 of 42

Furniture Is Not Working: "Open for All" by Paula Arntzen Made from recycled plastic, Arntzen's bench can only be folded by two people working together. Ray Hu 34 of 42

Furniture Is Not Working: "The Future of Plywood" by James Shaw Shaw proposes to subsitute unsustainable materials such as plywood and MDF with a lab-grown, bacterial alternative. Ray Hu 35 of 42

Furniture Is Not Working: "DADO" by Adam Guy Blencowe "DADO" allows users to build custom shelves with standardized moulding and railing profiles. Ray Hu 36 of 42

The Garden Edit Presents "Pot Plant" Tucked in a side street near the South Kensington tube station, the Garden Edit's humble group exhibition explored the relationship between ceramic vessels and their living contents. Ray Hu 37 of 42

The Garden Edit Presents "Pot Plant" The exhibition included work by ceramicistsMatthias KaiserandAlana Wilson, complemented by Fjura (florist Simone Gooch) Ray Hu 38 of 42

"White Canvas" at Mint Mint founder and tastemaker Lina Kanafani has once again curated an eclectic mix of fresh grads and established studios. Ray Hu 39 of 42

"White Canvas" at Mint Presented as a series of dense vignettes, the exhibition included several pieces by Mingardoand Maarten Baas, alongside recent RCA grads Grace Gallagher and Nadia Francis (all pictured here). Ray Hu 40 of 42

RCA #liveinclusive at the Dyson Building, Battersea Campus The Royal College of Art did not stage a graduation show during LDF2016, but Research Associates at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design presented their projects. #liveinclusive was a showcase of work that addresses "some of society's biggest problems." Ray Hu 41 of 42

RCA #liveinclusive at the Dyson Building, Battersea Campus As one might expect for service design and design thinking projects, the poster presentations belie the depth of the research and potential for social impact, which was best expressed in discussion with the designers. More information is availableonline. Ray Hu 42 of 42

As with NYC's ICFF and Milan's Salone del Mobile, the tentpole events of London Design Festival are predominantly trade-facing affairs. Whereaas 100% Design caters to interior designers and architects, designjunction balances contract with the indie, up-and-comer spirit of Shoreditch. Meanwhile, the nooks and crannies of South Kensington — known as Brompton Design District — and Clerkenwell were well worth exploring, including gems from the London design galleries, showrooms, and pop-up exhibitions alike.

From the buzzworthy Martino Gamper exhibition at SEE••DS to Jasper Morrison at the new Tate Modern to RCA's service-oriented #liveinclusive show, LDF2016 presented the depth and breadth of contemporary design in London.

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Full London Design Festival 2016 coverage:

Map Presents the Industrial Design Process

Partake in Particle Particular

COMP's Parquet Shelving System

Installation View

Tord Boontje's Futuristic Funhouse of Electro Craft

Seeds of Doubt: "No Ordinary Love"

Gallery - Keep Calm and Carry on: Shoreditch and London Design Fair

(It's also worth mentioning that a few LDF sites are regrettably absent from the galleries: As the center of gravity of the Brompton Design District, the V&A hosted several presentations and a robust schedule of talks and tours, while large-scale outdoor installations are intended to engage the general public. Like the Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park, the LDF Landmark Projects — “The Smile” by Alison Brooks Architects, on view until October 12, and the MINI Living “Your Side of Town” forest installations by Asif Khan — are highly visible attractions.)