The London Design Festival returns with events, exhibitions and installations that celebrate creativity and innovation throughout the city
The London Design Festival 2024 will take place September 14-22, 2024 and is one of the world’s most important design events. In fact, this annual festival celebrates creativity in London, with events scattered throughout the city showcasing the diversity and dynamism of the global design community, while highlighting London’s pivotal role as a hub of creativity.
Since its inception, the London Design Festival has championed both emerging and established talent. With a mission to foster collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas, the Festival serves as a vital platform for dialogue and discovery and as a compass for the latest developments within the international design community.
Every year, the Festival and its wider program highlight topical issues and ideas that are shaping the industry at large. Over the last decade, sustainability, AI and inclusivity have been the focus of the creative sector.
London Design Festival 2024: the program
The program of London Design Festival 2024 will feature major installations across the city, museum exhibits, Design Districts that highlight creative clusters spanning London, the Design Fair Material Matters, and the Global Design Forum, a thought leadership program that brings together creative leaders to explore and propose solutions for pressing global issues.
Additionally, the four annual London Design Medals will recognize the contribution made by leading design figures and emerging talent to London and the industry.
The Festival’s partnership scheme continues to play a central role, enabling a range of design businesses including emerging designers, recent graduates, NGOs and smaller businesses to participate in the program, ensuring that a broad range of talent have an opportunity to showcase their work.
A digital guide
The 2024 Festival is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, with Bloomberg Connects being the Festival’s official digital guide. The free mobile guide will feature exclusive content: expert commentary, video highlights, behind the scenes footage and exhibition maps.
Landmark Projects
Whisky, craft, luxury
As a brand rooted in progress, Johnnie Walker – the world’s number one Scotch whisky brand – will be unveiling a first-of-its-kind design innovation that focuses on craft and luxury. The incredible, never-before-seen design will be brought to life even further by the Landmark Project and an immersive consumer experience.
New sustainable practices in the construction industry
London Design Festival in association with American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) will present Vert at the Parade Ground at Chelsea College of Art, designed by leading industrial design practice Diez Office in partnership with climate farming experts OMC°C. This sustainable structure in red-oak glulam will revolutionize the cityscape, proposing an innovative architectural solution for cooling cities, providing serene green spaces and enhancing urban biodiversity, while seamlessly integrating with existing infrastructure.
Crafted predominantly from red oak, an abundant and highly sustainable wood species from the naturally regenerating forests of North America, the project will challenge the status quo of timber construction by advocating for greater diversity in timber sourcing, fostering forest resilience, and promoting sustainable practices within the construction industry.
The structural frame will hold a biodegradable net with a curated selection of around 20 plant species. The living ecosystem will support local biodiversity, serve as a habitat for essential insect populations, enrich the urban environment, and provide a sheltered space where visitors to the Festival can gather and relax.
Design and environmental psychology
At the Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall, Turkish designer and artist Melek Zeynep Bulut will present Duo, an innovative suspended installation that serves as an exploration of duality and interaction. Conceived as a rectangular prism with a minimalist design, Duo encapsulates the essence of ‘two’: a dialogue, a duality, an agreement, and the dynamic interplay between the center and periphery.
Central to Duo’s concept is its interconnected mechanical system, meticulously crafted to induce a delicate balance and rhythmic harmony. Magnets and sensors, strategically placed to repel each other, create an interactive experience where human presence alters spatial motion and rhythm. This dynamic relationship between viewer and installation not only transforms the space but also amplifies the sensory experience, blurring the boundaries between observer and observed.
Duo transcends traditional boundaries of design and space, inviting visitors to contemplate their primitive relationship with the environment. As a site of encounter and performance, this installation challenges perceptions and offers a multi-sensory journey that unfolds in real-time.
Room for the youth
Power Out of Restriction (POoR Collective) will partner with Battersea Power Station to create a community-inspired installation for the exciting new riverside neighborhood. The project will see last year’s winners of the Emerging Design Medal and Battersea Power Station host a series of workshops for Wandsworth-based school children and youth groups to design an exciting piece of public art, which will be displayed during the London Design Festival in September.
Launched in 2019, by architects Larry Botchway, Shawn Adams, and Ben Spry, and accountant Matt Harvey-Agyemang, POoR seeks to elevate young people and give them access to the design industry.
Craft x Tech
The VA’s Prince Consort Gallery will host Craft x Tech, an exhibition that bridges the gap between traditional Japanese craft and contemporary technology. The goal of the project is to create a novel and unique body of artworks that express both the history and future potential of these beautiful materials and techniques.
Craft-producing districts for the inaugural edition of Craft x Tech are from the six prefectures of the Tohoku (north-east) region of Japan. The designers who are collaborating with the master crafts producers are Sabine Marcelis, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves (Studio SWINE), Ini Archibong, Yoichi Ochiai, Hideki Yoshimoto, and Michael Young. The program is an initiative led by the Craft x Tech Association and Tangent, with curatorial direction of Maria Cristina Didero.
Communion: focus on Ghana
At the VA Museum, British-Ghanaian designer Giles Tettey Nartey is exploring culture, culinary tradition, and the rituals of domestic life in Ghana through ‘Communion’. Designed as a reimagination of the practice of making ‘fufu’ – a West African staple food –, the communal pounding table aims to reframe the act of pounding cassava and plantain, one person pounding, another turning the mixture in an almost choreographed fusion of movement and sound that is akin to dance. The design centers the process of collectively making and sharing a meal as a point for exchange and discussion.
Emerging designers at the VA Museum
During the London Design Festival 2024, the VA Emerging Designer Commission will present three talented emerging designers – Arjun Singh Assa, Liang-Jung Chen, and Angela Ford – who delve into the concept of ‘origin’ through their contemporary design practices. Arjun Singh Assa, born in Kenya, explores generational knowledge and spiritual themes inspired by Sikh architecture, translating them into conceptual furniture pieces. Taiwanese designer Liang-Jung Chen examines physical and metaphorical borders, focusing on museum barriers as design elements. Angela Ford, a British-Jamaican multidisciplinary designer, investigates raw materials from a decolonial perspective, using her family’s DNA to craft artefacts that reflect untold histories and movements.
Design Districts
From North to South, East to West, the Design Districts are a key component of the Festival makeup. Each District has its own unique personality that reflects the local community and enables visitors to explore events a short walking distance from each other.
There will be 11 Design Districts as part of this year’s Festival: Bankside Design District, Battersea Design District, Brompton Design District, Chelsea Design District, Dalston to Stokey Design District, Fitzrovia Design District, Greenwich Peninsula Design District, Mayfair Design District, Park Royal Design District, Shoreditch Design Triangle and William Morris Design Line.
Material Matters
Material Matters will return during London Design Festival 2024, from 18-21 September. The fair dedicated to the discovery of new sustainable materials and design, will present around fifty exhibitors drawn from London, the UK and around the world. Exhibitors will include globally recognized brands and emerging talent, with a focus on materials intelligence and a desire to make the world a slightly better place.
Global Design Forum
Lastly, Finally, Global Design Forum is one of the London Design Festival’s core programs, dedicated to thought leadership in the field of design. This year, the event will be back at the VA celebrating 10 years since it first took place at the Museum.
The program will focus on some of the most pressing and crucial challenges that designers currently face. The main themes include reflections on how design can be practiced ethically and sustainably and new approaches in addressing and repairing the damage caused by conflict and disaster.
Over 60 speakers from across the global design and creative community will share new perspectives on how design can be more accessible, inclusive and sustainable.
