We've selected for you a hot list of events we think are going to be super interesting to see during the London Design Festival. We've found things like this CanCon "which may be the world’s first aluminium-can-only bar and off-licence", talks about the power of colour and light, a big focus on sustainability and single-use products this year, and a couple of foodie specials. Have a read!
Take the Plunge by Volume Creative
14-22 September 2019
"Volume Creative, in collaboration with Virgin Voyages, invites visitors to Take the Plunge: a playful installation at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf.
The interactive project shows the power of design to evoke curiosity, in a stand-alone immersive experience created for London Design Festival. Visitors are invited on a journey of discovery and asked to dive into a new experience. The minimalist exterior juxtaposes with the warmth that awaits within. Visitors step into an endless horizon, giving way to an extraordinary secondary space that depicts a sunset under the sea. The concept is inspired by a love of the sea – the great unknown with the promise of epic discoveries.
Take the Plunge hints at this spirit of adventure and celebrates the endless possibilities of great design, using multi-sensory techniques to capture the joyful elements of an oceanic journey.
10am-8pm daily
@ Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House St, London SE1 9PH
Cooking Experience with BORA by DesignSpace London
18 September 2019
"DesignSpace London host a cooking experience with state-of-the-art BORA cooktops in their inspirational architectural kitchen showroom. Chef Sarah Gardiner will demonstrate new culinary techniques using surface induction and the new stainless steel Tepan complete with integrated downdraft extraction."
18 September 2019 - Wed 6pm-9pm - Free Event
@ 120 Webber Street, London SE1 0QL
The Conran Shop x Sella Concept by The Conran Shop
14-22 September 2019
"The Conran Shop invites you to immerse yourself in a world of mirrored observation conceived by the avant-garde design studio Sella Concept as they take over the brand’s flagship window at the iconic Michelin House on the Fulham Road.
Titled AD INFINITUM the installation celebrates the enduring influence of much-loved classics on contemporary design and deploys reflection as a metaphor for knowledge exchange between the past, present and future. Sella Concept’s mirror-filled installation will allow viewers to investigate icons in The Conran Shop’s collection from entirely new perspectives. "
14-22 September 2019
Mon, Tue, Friday 10am-6pm, Wed-Thu 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-6.30pm, Sun 12pm-6pm
@ Michelin House 81 Fulham Road, SW3 6RD
Free Event
Walala Lounge by Camille Walala
14-22 September
"Camille Walala returns to London Design Festival in a characteristically colourful manner. The French-born designer has been commissioned by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland to energise and enliven South Molton Street, in the heart of London’s West End, with a bold and beautiful family of street furniture."
14-22 September 2019
@ South Molton StreetLondonW1K 5QE
Iri-Descent by Liz West
14-22 September 2019
"Iri-Descent by Liz West is a suspended arrangement of 150 skeleton-framework cubes located in the atrium of the historic Fortnum & Mason store in Piccadilly. Clad with dichromatic film in two differing colourways, the cubes appear to change colour as visitors move around the atrium and between the floors above and below. There are two colour variations interlaced throughout – warm and cool – offering a multi-coloured range of hues. The highly reflective film also mirrors its surrounds and transmits complementary colours outwards.
Iri-Descent forms part of an ongoing series of spatial light works, based on research into colour theory and light fields, that aim to transform architectural spaces and public environments."
14-22 September 2019
Monday-Saturday 10AM–9PM, Sunday 11.30AM–6PM
@ Fortnum & Mason,181 Piccadilly, W1A 1ER
Disco Carbonara by Martino Gamper
14-22 September 2019
"Coal Drops Yard will be home to a Festival Commission by Martino Gamper. This one-off site-specific installation is a playful temporary addition to the King’s Cross architecture: a false facade of a disco with a fresh take on traditional cladding from the Italian Alps. "
14-22 September 2019
Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm, Sunday 11am-6pm
@ Coal Drops Yard, Stable St, Kings Cross, London N1C 4DQ
Welcome Home by Elephant West
14-15 & 17-22 September 2019
"To coincide with the London Design Festival, Elephant West, the innovative new art space in West London, will be hosting a series of adventurous and immersive installations, exploring the idea of “home” and what it means in today’s world and in our increasingly digital future."
14-15 & 17-22 September 2019
Art space: Tue–Sun 12pm–6pm
@ Elephant West, 62 Wood Lane, W12 7RH
Free Event
Tom Dixon is TouchySmellyFeelyNoisyTasty
14-22 September 2019
"This September, Tom Dixon introduces TouchySmellyFeelyNoisyTasty at his hub in king’s cross. the coal office will become a multi-sensory lab with a series of talks, workshops, events and parties taking place in the shop, factory, restaurant and gallery. In the ‘touchy feely’ arch located in the shop, Tom Dixon’s design research studio will partner with men’s care brand harry’s to create a razor bar that draws on the sensory tactility of shaving. the razor bar will be open to the public and will offer by-invitation grooming services. ten limited edition razor handles that have been co-designed by both brands will also be on display."
14-22 September 2019
Monday – Saturday 10am till 8pm Thursday 10am till 9pm Sunday 11am till 5pm @ Tom Dixon Studio, The Coal Office, 1 Bagley walk, Kings Cross, London N1C 4PQ
Design & Dine
16-21 September 2019
"In partnership with HAY, &Tradition and Keays & Kempton, we are delighted to announce that The Dinner Ladies will host a very special supperclub to celebrate London Design Festival 2019.
Our pop-up restaurant and cocktail bar will be located in an elegant Georgian townhouse, overlooking St James Park. Creative duo Keays & Kempton have envisioned their own take of the private members club, balancing bespoke artwork and sumptuous antiques with the latest design collections from HAY and &Tradition. We will be serving food and cocktails that champion sustainable and seasonal ingredients, inspired by the design ethos of our partners."
16-21 September
@ Nine United Studio, SW1H 9AB
Please Be Seated by Paul Cocksedge
Open until 11th October 2019
"British designer Paul Cocksedge is transforming Finsbury Avenue Square with Please Be Seated. Located in the heart of Broadgate, the Landmark Project will be the most ambitious of British Land’s commissions to date. The large-scale installation fuses innovation and technology, and responds to the changing rhythm of the community: its design features curves for people to sit on and walk under, further enhancing London’s largest pedestrianised neighbourhood. The work is made from scaffolding planks, and Cocksedge has collaborated with Essex-based high-end interiors company White & White to re-imagine and re-use the building wood. "
14-22 September 2019
(Open until 11 October 2019)
@ Finsbury Avenue Square, Broadgate London EC2M 2PP
The cork stopper and the wine bottle by Jasper Morrison Shop
16-20 September 2019
"This is an opportunity to admire the subtle development of corks and bottles over four hundred years. By lining up historical examples held in private collections, the exhibition puts on view the unfamiliar details of these familiar and complementary product types and their manufacture.
The exhibition marks the two latest issues of the French journal Typologie. It is curated by Collections Typologie and Anniina Koivu."
16-20 September 2019
Mon-Fri 11am-5pm
@ 24b Kingsland Road, E2 8DA - Free Event
CanCon by House of Cans
21st September 2019
"House of Cans may be the world’s first aluminium-can-only bar and off-licence. For LDF they bring together 15 designers and 15 drinks producers to create CanCon, a one-day beer and drinks festival with design, sustainability and great taste at its heart. House of Cans is a bar and off-licence on Lower Stable Street, creating one-off collaborations with artists and London breweries. House of Cans is also providing the official Coal Drops Yard beer for the whole site, brewed just up the road in Tile Yards."
21st September 2019
@ House of Cans, 116 Lower Stable Street N1C 4DR
Free Event
OKA's Field to Fork Supper Club with The Woodsman
19th September 2019
"For London Design Festival 2019 OKA is celebrating Brompton Design District's Nature/Nurture theme with a supper club showcasing incredible culinary talent from outside London, in the unique surroundings of its flagship Chelsea store. Hosted by Telegraph food critic and MasterChef regular William Sitwell, the menu will be cooked by renowned chef Mike Robinson of The Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon. Mike is a chef, restaurateur, hunter-gatherer and conservationist who is passionate about using wild, sustainable ingredients."
Thu, 19 September 2019, 19:00 – 22:30
@ OKA Chelsea, 155-167 Fulham Road, London SW3 6SN
ShedFest 19: Celebration Safari Dinner
16-21st September 2019
"Throughout London Design Festival Week, five sheds which will have been creatively decorated by five of this year’s emerging UK-based artists and placed in Eccleston Yards courtyard (on the South Belgravia/Victoria border) will become a pop up market by day and pop up safari supper venue by night. ShedFest, which hopes to become an annual celebration of UK talent launches on Monday, 16th September and runs until Sunday, 22nd September."
16-21st September 2019
@ Eccleston Place, London, SW1W 9AZ
Granby Workshop launch worlds first ceramic tableware made from 100% waste by Kiosk N1C
18-22 September 2019
"Granby Workshop will launch a new range of ceramic tableware made from 100% waste materials at London Design Festival 2019. The range will be showcased at an installation and pop-up shop at Kiosk N1C in Coal Drops Yard and the first products will be available to order exclusively on Kickstarter. The range has grown out of extensive research by the Liverpool-based ceramics studio gathering, testing and analysing materials from a wide range of post-consumer and industrial waste streams including glass, metal and ceramic recycling, steel production, quarry spoils and water filtration. Collectively these sources generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste per year which otherwise goes to landfill."
18-22 September 2019
Wed-Sun 10am-8pm
@ Kiosk N1C, Unit 108, Lower Stable Street, King's Cross N1C 4DQ
Free Event
Custom Exercise by Ace Hotel London Shoreditch
17-22 September 2019
"Ace Hotel London introduces this year’s design initiative, during London Design Festival, that investigates the opportunities made possible by reusing, repurposing and reinterpreting existing methods, materials and techniques. Approaching items through this lens, the project takes form as a collective endeavour, working with a cadre of designers to responsibly create custom, customised and customisable objects for Ace Hotel London. London Design Festival promotes the city’s creativity, drawing in the country’s greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to deliver an unmissable celebration of design."
9:00 AM Tuesday September 17, 2019
through 5:00 PM - Sunday September 22, 2019
RSVP for the launch on Tue 17 Sep, 7pm at Lobby - LAUNCH PARTY RSVP
@ 100 Shoreditch High St, Hackney, London E1 6JQ
Never Lost by citizenM
14-30 September 2019
"citizenM commissioned London-based artist Emily Forgot to debut her next artwork in the heart of Shoreditch during the London Design Festival 2019. The artwork entitled Never Lost is a colourful and tactile maze – a study of the boundaries between real, remembered and imagined spaces.
Emily’s work spans art, design and illustration. Using her recognisably playful and graphic visual language, she explores her passion for interior spaces, architecture and colour."
14-30 September 2019, 9:00 am - 11:00 pm
@ 6 Holywell Ln, London EC2A 3ET
The power of Colour & Light by Atrium
16-19 September 2019
"A programme of events throughout the week will take the visitor on a journey of exploration that seeks to illustrate the relationship between light and colour and just some of the ways they have influenced architects, designers and artists – and how they affect all of us in mind and body."
Some of their events:
Unlocking the Code of Colour & Light 16th September 2019 | 12.00-13.30pm
Everything you need to know about LEDs (but may have been afraid to ask) 17th September 2019 | 12.00-13.30pm
16-19 September 2019
@ Atrium Limited 28 Leonard Street London EC2A 4BY
Taste of Design by ESTABLISHED AND SONS
16-19 September 2019
"Established & Sons will showcase a curated range of additions to its existing furniture and lighting collections in an installation themed “Taste of Design”, which will invite visitors to graze design both literally and figuratively. The Taste of Design invites visitors to explore the idea that the “first taste is always with the eyes,” a concept credited to Marcus Gavius Apicus, a 1st century AD Roman gourmand. "
16-19 September 2019
@ Established & Sons, Tilney Court, London, EC1V 9BQ
Store Store Workshops + Product Launch
14-22 September 2019
"Visit STORE STORE in Coal Drops Yard during LDF 2019 for the launch of After School Club products made by state school pupils. STORE STORE is also hosting a series of public weekday After Work Club workshops during LDF, hosted by leading UK artists and designers. STORE STORE offers state school pupils the opportunity to design and manufacture high quality products, with expert tutelage and unique access to innovative materials and processes. The products are sold, with royalties going to the cause of the students choice. The After School Clubs are supported by Coal Drops Yard. "
14-22 September 2019
@ 118 Lower Stable Street, London, N1C 4DR
Matter of Stuff at Sketch London
16 September - 7 November 2019
"Matter of Stuff, the leading design and manufacturing consultancy, is proud to announce the launch of A Second Life exhibition at sketch for London Design Festival 2019. Commissioning one architecture and three design studios, Matter of Stuff is presenting an array of experimental new works made from a single raw material. Hosted by sketch, the iconic artist-conceived food and drinks destination in London’s Mayfair, the exhibition will run from Monday 14 September through to November 2019. In preparation for the exhibition, PiM.Studio, Brodie Neill, Matteo Fogale, and Studio Furthermore have transformed 5,000 cylindrical Burbridge pine dowels provided by Matter of Stuff to make a resolute and ongoing statement about the infinite possibilities of sustainable design, upcycling and waste avoidance. "
16 September - 7 November 2019
@ Sketch London 9 Conduit St, Mayfair, London W1S 2XG
The Fleet Drinking Fountain by Michael Anastassiades for The London Fountain Co.
14-22 September 2019
"One of the most important elements of Brompton Design District's approach is its focus on lasting impact and the use of design to actively enrich the area for the future. In September, the London Fountain Co unveils its first permanent public drinking fountain outside South Kensington Underground station. Led by Charles Asprey, and Jane Withers who has been at the forefront of using design to address water scarcity, the initiative seeks to reduce our dependence on single-use plastic bottles by restoring the city’s public drinking water infrastructure." Dezeen says "The idea is that, as you lean over to take a drink, the curved bronze surface will reflect golden light onto your face."
14-22 September 2019
@ V&A Madjeski Garden
The Greenhouse by LSA International
19-22 September
"This September, LSA International has something very special planned for our participation in designjunction, the essential London Design Week destination for anyone passionate about design and interiors. We'll be celebrating our long heritage of considered, sustainable design, which underpins this year's introduction of our 100% recycled glass CANOPY collection, at The Greenhouse - an immersive experience held at Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross. Launched in collaboration with the Eden Project - and inspired by their vision of collective behaviour change for sustainable living - the CANOPY collection of distinctively shaped, handmade pieces includes drinkware, to encourage a reduction in single-use plastics, and vases and planters that allow the user to grow and propagate nature in their own homes. It's the product of more than five decades of 'design for longevity' by our family-owned company. Every piece we produce - and have ever produced - is created to hold its owner's attention for a lifetime, while our expertise in traditional crafting techniques ensures maximum durability and usability."
The Greenhouse at designjunction will run from 19-22 September
@ Unit 5, Viaduct Level, Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross, London N1C 4DQ