LANDMARK PROJECTS AND COMMISSIONS
ALPHABET KELLENBERGER-WHITE SUPPORTED BY BRITISH LAND BROADGATE
Known for their playful approach to typefaces, Kellenberger-White has designed a new series of alphabet chairs, supported by Festival Headline Partner British Land. An experiment in folding metal to create a typographic system, the chairs are informed by research into László Moholy-Nagy, Marianne Brandt and Wilhelm Wagenfeld. The result is an alphabet of 26 chairs. Other influences for this usable typeface include Bruno Munari’s photos ‘Seeking Comfort in an Uncomfortable Chair’ (1944), Max Bill and Hans Gugelot’s Ulm Stool (1955), as well as Bruce McLean’s ‘pose’ works of the 1970s.
Each chair is in a different colour, chosen from a specialist paint manufacturer used for industrial metalwork – from International Orange (used for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge) to Cornflower Blue (the colour of Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge). The alphabet will be installed in front of Exchange House in Broadgate which is built on an exposed steel bridge spanning the tracks of Liverpool Street Station.
Chief Executive, Chris Grigg, says: Design is integral to everything we do at British Land. Our partnership with London Design Festival celebrates the world’s leading designers and we are delighted to once again support the Festival.”
TIME FOR TEA
SCHOLTEN AND BAIJINGS SUPPORTED BY FORTNUM & MASON FORTNUM & MASON, PICCADILLY
Scholten & Baijings will create a contemporary tea installation in the first floor of the historic Fortnum & Mason flagship store in Piccadilly. Visitors will be invited to immerse themselves in the daily tea party, held throughout the nine days of the Festival. Using more than 80 products, designed by companies from across the globe, Scholten & Baijings will deliver a unique take on the ritual of tea, set on a six-metre-long table.
Fortnum’s iconic Eau de Nil colour provided the inspiration for the installation, with all furniture and products designed by Scholten & Baijings bearing the distinctive green hue. The marble floor and tables in Eau de Nil will be produced by the Italian marble manufacturer Luce di Carrara. Long green wool Colour Block curtains will be woven in the United Kingdom for Maharam, the American textile company, and special, green upholstered chairs will be furnished by the brands HAY, Moroso and Karimoku New Standard. Moreover, in collaboration with Fortnum & Mason, 1616 / arita japan and Maharam Accessoires Japan, an exquisite porcelain tea set has been developed just for this occasion and produced in the Japanese Arita region, renowned for its fine porcelain since the 17th century.
PROJECTS AT THE V&A
Celebrating ten years with the V&A as the official London Design Festival hub, this unique collaboration sees iconic spaces within the Museum transformed each year by an extraordinary collection of specially-commissioned installations and displays by international contemporary designers.
Head of London Design Festival at the V&A, Victoria Broackes, says:‘Museums are often viewed as keepers of the past, but the London Design Festival at the V&A programme demonstrates the V&A’s commitment to the contemporary and to inspiring the future. This year the programme explores new technologies, sound, digital design and gaming, tying into the V&A’s current exhibitions Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt and The Future Starts Here. It’s exciting to offer a wide programme to all our visitors, encompassing all that design offers, and indeed will offer as we move into the future.’
MULTIPLY
WAUGH THISTLETON ARCHITECTS
SUPPORTED BY THE AMERICAN HARDWOOD EXPORT COUNCIL and ARUP THE SACKLER COURTYARD, V&A
London Design Festival have collaborated with Waugh Thistleton Architects, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and ARUP to create MultiPly, an interactive modular maze-like installation in The Sackler Courtyard at the V&A, that will encourage visitors to re-think the way homes and cities are designed and built. This pavilion will delve into two of the current global challenges - housing and climate change - and will present the fusion of modular systems and a responsible choice of materials as a vital solution.
This three-dimensional permeable structure will be built out of a re-usable panel system made with 60 cubic metres of American Tulipwood, and it will explore ways in which modular architecture can be developed and enjoyed. “The structure will lead people a merry dance up and down staircases and across bridges exploring space and light,” says architect Andrew Waugh. “The experience will provide previously unseen framed glimpses of the V&A and the courtyard below.”
DAZZLE
STUDIO FRITH
SUPPORTED BY BLOOMBERG PHILANTROPIES ROOM 131A, V&A
London Design Festival is collaborating with 14-18 NOW – the UK’s design and cultural programme for the First World War centenary - on a commissioned project inspired by the First World War concept of Dazzle. The project will see Room 131A at the V&A being ‘dazzled’ throughout the nine days of the Festival.
The idea of ’dazzle’, an experimental camouflage painted on to the surface of ships, was pioneered by British artist Norman Wilkinson, who prepared numerous designs for vessels, including US merchant ships, targeted by enemy U- boats. Drawing on avant-garde artistic movements such as Cubism and Vorticism, as well as animal camouflage, these bewildering shapes and angles were designed to confuse the enemy as they struggled to make out the dazzle ships against shifting waves and clouds.