London Design Festival 2022. INTO Sigh exhibition by Sony Design – Photo by Ed Reeve.

Design – For nine days until September 25, London Design Festival 2022 celebrates creativity with over 300 exhibitions, fairs, and installations across twelve vibrant design districts. We selected 12 must-visit destinations.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about London Design Festival 2022 on Archipanic…

Brutalist togetherness

St Giles square [Map] – 17-25 September, open 24h.

Photo Ed Reeve.

Dutch material brand SolidNature teams up with Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis to present Swivel, a site-specific Brutalist outdoor seating installation featuring colourful stone chairs that can be easily rotated to encourage communication and interaction. As a celebration of materiality and movement, Swivel invites you to pause your journey, seat, and enjoy a new urban playground.

Contemporary urban Stonehenge

Greenwich Peninsula, Canary Wharf Wren Landing [Map] – 17-25 September, open 24h.

Courtesy of LDF.

At Canary Wharf Wren Landing, studio Stanton Williams, British stone supplier LSI Stone and engineering company Webb Yates invite visitors to engage with Henge, a circular stone structure that “creates a space separate from the outside world.” The installation is made of 150 million-year-old Jurassic limestone, a zero-carbon, recyclable material. Spontaneous performances, music, and poetry readings take place within and around the structure.

Kaleidoscopic experiences

4 Cromwell Pl, South Kensington [Map] – Sept 17, 21, 23,24 h. 10.00-18.00, Sept 10 closes at 16.00, Sept 22 open until 21.00.

Photo by Ed Reeve.

At Cromwell place in the Brompton Design District, step into INTO SIGHT, a life-sized media platform and LDF landmark installation. Here, Sony Design plays on sensorial effects that transform simple boundary surfaces into an infinite vista through shifting light, colour, and sound. This year, Brompton Design District’s theme is Make Yourself At Home. Recent events have heightened our awareness of home, its importance, and its fragility in turbulent times.

V&A Victoria and Albert Museum

Cromwell Rd [Map] – Sept 17-25 h. 10.00-17.45, September 20, opens until 22.00.

Parley for the Oceans at V&A – Courtesy of LDF 2022.

As usual, the Victoria & Albert Museum is a must-visit destination of the festival. Here, with the Material Experiments installation, Omer Arbel transforms the John Madejski Garden into an immersive glass-blowing studio with an iridescent sculpture at its core. Annabel Karim Kassar explores Beirut’s’ reconstruction in the wake of the 2020 harbour explosion. Italian architect Niccolo Casas teamed up with Spanish design brand Nagami to showcase a sculpture made from upcycled marine plastic waste by environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans.

London Design Museum

224-238 Kensington High Street [Map] – Sept 17-25, h. 10.00-18.00, Sept 17, 23 and 24 open until 21.00.

AMSR exhibition at London Design Musem – Courtesy of LDF.

The London Design Museum presents three exhibitions. Yinka Ilori: Parables of Happiness will bring the designer’s distinctive aesthetic of playful colour combinations and patterns to nod to British postmodernism. WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR explores the emerging field of creativity that has grown around the world of ASMR, meaning all that emotional and physical feelings provoked by sounds, and videos, even digital ones, that actually calm, excite, and tickle you. The Future of Ageing, curated by the Design Age Institute and the Design Museum, explores how designers reimagine ageing.

Design London fair

Greenwich Peninsula, Magazine London 11 Ordnance Crescent [Map] – September 21 h. 10.00-21.00, Sept 22-23 h. 10.00-17.00,  September 24 h. 10.00-16.00.

Photo by DesignLondon, courtesy of LDF.

DesignLondon, the largest official destination for contemporary design at London Design Festival, returns to North Greenwich with its second edition between 21-24 September 2022. Taking place in Magazine London on the banks of the River Thames features local and international brands such as HAY, Artemide, Tuuci as well as a curated selection of international pavilions from countries including Denmark, Korea, Portugal, and Thailand.

Pearson Lloyd’s 25th anniversary

Shoreditch Design Triangle, 1-3 Yorkton Street [Map] – September 20-25, 10.00-18.00 pm.

Courtesy of LDF.

The environments in which we live, work and travel – and the products and systems that define them – are in flux, believe Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd, co-founders of Pearson Lloyd studio which celebrates its 25th anniversary with the Change Making exhibition. Through their projects, visitors are encouraged to think about how and what we’re designing now and challenge them to imagine how things might change in the future. How will emerging technologies, new global challenges, and further behavioral shifts likely change the landscape?

TWENTY by Tom Dixon

Kings Cross Design District, Bagley Walk [Map] – 17-25 September, Check HERE for opening times.

TWENTY by Tom Dixon at the Coal Office – Photo via IG, follow @tomdixonstudio.

At the Coal Office in Kings Cross, Tom Dixon celebrates 20 years of design with TWENTY, a thoughtfully curated selection of unseen creations, some new, some reformed and some in embryonic experiment mode. Highlights include a gigantic MELT Dichroic chandelier, a BIRD chair made of eelgrass from Denmark, a latex S-chair and giant mycelium sculptures.

Pentagram x Huguet

4 Cromwell Place, South Kensington [Map] – Sept 17-25 h. 10.00-18.00, September 21, open until 21.00.

Courtesy of LDF 2022.

Tiles that gently shimmer in the dark and a coffee table with millions of combinations are among the unique collections created by seven partners from Pentagram’s London and New York Studios. The series was developed in collaboration with Astrid Stavro and Mallorcan artisan hydraulic tile, cement and terrazzo producer Huguet.

When two souls merge into a new home…

4 Cromwell Place, South Kensington [Map] – Sept 17-24 h. 10.00-18.00, Sept 21 open until 21.00, Sept 25 10.00-16.00.

Courtesy of LDF.

SEEDS Gallery presents TWO KETTLES, NO SOFA. Designer James Shaw and writer Lou Stoppard explore themes around moving in together, then “tastes and desires collide when two households combine to become one.” A presentation of Shaw’s design objects is mixed with design classics to create a fictive environment that tells the story of a couple negotiating conflicting tastes as they build a home together. Shaw’s’ display has been shaped by a new short story by Stoppard, which was inspired by Shaw’s objects.

Béton Brut @ Paul Smith flagship store

Mayfair Design District. 9 Albemarle St [Map] – Sept 17-25 h. 10.00-18.00.

London Design Festival 2022 – Béton Brut at Paul Smith’s flagship store, courtesy of LDF.

Vintage furniture gallery Béton Brut takes up residency at No. 9 Albemarle Street, Paul Smith’s London flagship shop in Mayfair. In a special curation by design dealer Sophie Pearce, Béton Brut evolves its monochrome palette and embraces colour in direct response to Paul Smith’s signature vibrancy.

OXO Tower Wharf

Bankside Design District. Barge House Street, South Bank [Map] – Sept 21-25 h. Open 11.00-18.00.

Oxo Tower Wharf, courtesy of LDF.

OXO Tower Wharf, home to over 25 designer-makers, will host open studios across two floors of the iconic building. From millinery to ceramics, weaving to leather-working, and much more is waiting to be discovered. Elsewhere at Oxo, a brand new design fair, Material Matters will take over Bargehouse and gallery@oxo. The event is an extension of the critically acclaimed ‘‘Material Matters’’ podcast and will celebrate the importance of materials and their ability to shape our lives.

• All photos: courtesy of the exhibitors and London Design Festival 2022.

London Design Festival 2022. INTO SIGHT exhibition by Sony Design – Photo by Ed Reeve.