The big three: London Design Festival 2018 continues to showcase the hottest new interiors trends
At the heart of the London Design Festival are the three huge “trade” shows — 100% Design at Olympia, designjunction on the South Bank, and the London Design Fair in the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane. These sales platforms for brands and designers are surrounded by other festival events. It all adds up to fabulous days out.
100% DESIGN: FOR BIG NAMES
This show kick-started a revolution in 1995, the first contemporary design show under one roof. This year it’s in Olympia with big brands, big ideas, new makers and special features.
The show is divided into interiors, kitchens, bath/bed, emerging talent and, new this year, a “build” section. Here is the P.A.T.H energy-generating prefab — short for Prefabricated Accessible Technological Homes. Its celebrity designer Philippe Starck lives in one near Paris.
From Tesla comes Powerwall which stores solar energy for later use. 100% Futures is curated by Max Fraser, with techy ways to make life better, including: Blubel, a Bluetooth-connected bike bell for safer routes; Magway, a clever parcel-delivery brainwave; Mimicalab, a monitor for food spoilage: and Sana, a device to lessen pain. Cheerfully low tech is the Velopresso, a coffee trike that pedal-powers your brew.
See big brands alongside a wealth of emerging talent, unparalleled elsewhere.
Olympia is the hub of the new West Kensington Design District with Beazley Designs of the Year just opened at the Design Museum. Opposite the show entrance is the crowd-funded Space Gap pavilion by architects Unknown Works, where free talks, debates and films expose social inequalities and posit design solutions. Polish Oskar Zieta does amazing blow-up metal furniture at the Arthill Gallery in North End Road (onandondesigns.com).
DESIGNJUNCTION: FOR FUN
A big, fun show in the Bankside design district, downstairs are 60 shops/internet traders/designers selling smart stuff you won’t see elsewhere. Blend your own fragrance with the Experimental Perfume Club; get free initials on leather goods (katieleamon.com) and on glasses cases (monclondon.com). Enjoy “disco” at Gufram of Italy and an immersive Japanese spa (earlofeastlondon.com). Plug into a big batch of lighting brands.
Upstairs are international furnishings. Artist Finn Stone has rejigged Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II using paints by London-based Mylands. Nearby, over three floors, is the gritty Bargehouse gallery. Design addicts will love Vitra’s “The Original” touring show of furniture classics. Artist Vic Lee is live-illustrating the walls. Check out an engrossing talks programme.
LONDON DESIGN FAIR: INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK
Upbeat and off the beaten track, the London Design Fair is always the joker in the pack, with a surprise around each corner of its industrial brick and concrete venue, and Brick Lane is huge fun at the weekend. National groups show their best face in “country pavilions”, with Finland in the Nordic Happiness Hotel and Sweden and Denmark in solid shows. Ever avant-garde, Holland does daring Dutch Stuff — how about a red rubber-coated sofa cut with hot wires from a block of foam (martijnrigters.com)? Or art food experiences (creativechef.co)?
The British Craft Pavilion, lovingly curated by Hole & Corner magazine has 40 makers in for “a craft renaissance”. Catch up with Cornwall, as seven makers come to London, including The Leach Pottery set up by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in 1920. Ceramics are in abundance but find also weaving, leather making, glassware, metal and silversmithing and woodwork.
However, contemporary Bohemian glass really steals the show. Head for the Czech Republic, where Umprum, Prague’s renowned arts academy, flaunts off-piste handmade vessels and sculpture — “exquisitely crafted punk glass anarchy,” remarks London Design Fair director Jimmy MacDonald.
THE LOWDOWN
100% Design: open September 19-22, Olympia, Hammersmith Road, W14; trade show but open to the public on September 22, £15. Get half-price tickets here.
designjunction: open September 20-23, Doon Street, Bargehouse gallery and Oxo Tower Wharf, Riverside Walkway, SE1; £16 — get half-price tickets online when you quote code ES2018.
London Design Fair: open September 20-23, Old Truman Brewery, 26 Hanbury Street, E1; trade show, public admitted Saturday and Sunday. For this show, tickets are £12.50 in advance or £15 on the door, but you can book two for the price of one when you use code EveningStandard on Eventbrite at londondesignfair.co.uk.