In its twelfth year, the annual London Design Festival returns presenting the city as the design capital and a gateway to a creative community. With over 300 events and installations, there are many to look forward to. Ultra Vie has listed the highlights for you on this grand design week from the 13th to 21st September.

A Place Called Home

One of this year’s London Design Festival Landmark Project will be exhibited in the heart of London, Trafalgar Square. In its collaboration with Airbnb – the largest community marketplace for people to discover and book online accommodation in people’s homes, four designers create their own perception of a ‘home’ that you don’t want to leave. The ‘house’ interiors, each separately designed by Jasper Morrison, Patternity, Raw Edges and Studioilse, are created from the personality of the designer themselves, reflecting Airbnb’s distinctive and individual concept. Each house will be open for public viewing from 18th until 22nd September.

Where: Trafalgar Square, Westminster, London, WC2N 5DN
When: 18th – 22nd September
Admission: Free

Double Space for BMW

With support from BMW, designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby collaborate and produce a new experience in Victoria & Albert Museum’s Raphael Gallery. ‘Double Space for BMW’ is a kinetic sculpture from two mirrored silver structures, suspending from the centre of the gallery. The distorted reflections from the mirror play with the viewers’ movements along with the Raphael displays within the room.

Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
When: 13th September – 24th October
Admission: Free

Human Nature

As his first collaboration with London Design Festival, Perrier-Jouët supports Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert’s bold installation of large blown glass cylinders. Wintrebert states, “I saw the glass cylinders and I was fascinated by how beautiful and simple they were. The cylinders are split open and flattened to take their intended shape as window glass. You could feel the strength and energy it took the glassblowers to make them.”

Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

Crafting Narrative: Storytelling through Objects and Making

Curated by Onkar Kular, ‘Crafting Narrative: Storytelling through Objects and Making’ exhibits the challenge and exploration of contemporary designers storytelling techniques through objects, in conveying a range of themes from history, culture, society to technology.

Where: PM Gallery & House, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London W5 5EQ
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

The First Law of Kipple

Acclaimed photographer, Dan Tobin Smith creates a walk-in art installation in his East London studio for this year’s LDF. With the entire floor filled with organised variant sizes objects, collected by Smith himself and donated by the public, the chromatically arranged objects transforms the studio floor space into a sea of gradient colours. Smith inspiration for this installation originates from the definition and implementation of ‘kipple’ as he states, “Everybody has some experience of kipple — It can mean clutter but it also has a psychological aspect because of the way waste or clutter affects you.”

Where: Dan Tobin Smith Studio, 52C Whitmore Road, N1 5QG
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

Candela

In collaboration with product designer Felix de Pass, graphic designer Michael Montgomery, and ceramist Ian McIntyre, Officine Panerai produces a great project in the Tapestry Gallery within the V&A. The installation produces luminous intensity as a rotary machine that will hover above the gallery floor.

Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

John Lewis: How We Live Today

For its 150th Anniversary of its first store opening in Oxford Street, the Design Museum presents John Lewis’ pop-up exhibition. ‘John Lewis: How We Live Today’ explores the design stories of popular products from radios to kitchen utensils, as well as the Evolution of a Product Type illustrating how cutting-edge technology offers consumer good devices, reflecting the transformation through size, form and performance.

Where: Design Museum, Shad Thames, SE1 2YD
When: 8th – 21st September
Admission: £12.40 Adult, £9.30 Student, £6.20 Children under 16 (6-15 inclusive)
Free entrance to members and children under six

House of Muses

Visitors of Museum of London will be greeted with an incredible pavilion by the museum’s entrance. The installation ‘House of Muses’ represents a pillar of an imagined lost cathedral that acts as a perception for visitors in foreseeing the museum’s future.

Where: Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

Masterpiece

19 Greek Street presents its latest exhibition ‘Masterpiece’ of 8 selected experimental works depicting an optimistic perception for sustainable design. In its inventive complexity, each design are chosen through its unprecedented process to forming a meditative aesthetic.

Where: 19 Greek Street, W1D 4DT London
When: 13th – 21st September
Admission: Free

Out of Sight: Drawing in the Lives of Makers

‘Out of Sight: Drawing in the Lives of Makers’ exhibits the intimacy between drawing and making, presenting creative processes from sketches to final production as visions made into reality. Curator Kyra Cane includes works of ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewellery, textiles and furniture, displaying the designers’ inspirations from visual notes, prototypes to the finished work.

Where: Contemporary Applied Arts, 89 Southwark Street, London SE1 0HX
When: 12th – 19th September
Admission: Free