Projects, exhibitions, events and installations across the city from 15-23 September

Buildings.

The return of London Design Festival, now in its sixteenth year, could be the perfect excuse to purchase a new pair of stylish trainers, or indeed hiking boots, before you spend nine days and evenings in pursuit of the new, the classic and the temporary.

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The riverside walkway near designjunction will provide a platform for Mud Shell, by Stephanie Chaltiel, which is intended to provide an alternative housing system for emergency use and innovative cities and marries ancient earth construction techniques with the latest drone spraying technology. 

LDF is celebrating ten years at the V&A as the official festival hub, where it will have a collection of specially-commissioned installations and displays by internationally-renowned contemporary designers. This year the programme explores sound, new technologies, digital design and gaming.

On one of the jetties overlooking the Thames on the South Bank, the city of Saint-Étienne will showcase the ‘Gateway to Inclusion’, an installation conceived by Lisa White of WGSN, in collaboration with designer François Dumas.

‘Memory & Light’ has been conceived for the mid-eighteenth century Norfolk House Music Room and created in collaboration with the composer Arvo Pärt. ‘The Patent Library’ is an open and hackable patent library, created by the Institute of Patent Infringement. Other installations include ‘The Art of Music in the Digital Age’ by musician and technology innovator Beatie Wolfe and ‘The Transubstantiation of Knowledge’, by artist Rachel Ara.

LDF has collaborated with Waugh Thistleton Architects, the American Hardwood Export Council and Arup to create MultiPly, an interactive modular maze-like installation in the Sackler Courtyard at the V&A.

The Global Design Forum will return to the V&A with a series of talks, discussions and workshops. This years’s keynote speakers include Sascha Lobe and Marina Willer of Pentagram, Rankin and Peter Barber.

At designjunction a display of winners of the 2018 Blueprint Architecture Photography Awards will be lit by an active lighting system from Atrium working in tandem with a sound installation called Urbanity – a soundscape of cities and architecture.

Trade shows taking place during the festival include 100% Design at Olympia; Decorex International in Syon Park; designjunction in three venues on the South Bank: the Riverside Walkway, Doon Street and Oxo Tower Wharf; Focus/18 at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour and London Design Fair at the Truman Brewery.

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Squire & Partners is launching The Architect’s Toolkit with a dreamscape co-working space to connect young designers with industry leaders

For 2018 there will be ten official design districts: distinct concentrations of design activity and events that can be covered on foot. Four of them are new this year: Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Regent Street & St James’s, and West Kensington. Paddington Central Design Route is also new this year, joining the Brixton Design Trail.

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Fortnum & Mason’s iconic eau-de-nil colour has provided the inspiration for Scholten & Baijings’ contemporary tea installation on the first floor of the Piccadilly store. All furniture and products, including a marble floor and tables, will bear the green hue.

To book tickets for talks and for details of other events visit: www.globaldesignforum.com  and www.londondesignfestival.com