Tramshed

Across London there was a fantastic number and variety of exhibitions and events to enjoy during this year’s London Design Festival. From Tent London, the Origin craft fair and the myriad galleries and showrooms around Shoreditch in the east, to the best young talent at Designersblock on the Southbank and the boutiques around the Brompton Road in the west, there was barely enough time to fit it all in. Here are a few of my highlights from a great week.

Charlotte Kingsnorth

At Designersblock Charlotte Kingsnorth showed upcycled chairs with bizarre mutations. The upholstered appendages transform the chairs from functional yet mundane objects to expressive and fascinating artistic statements.

Chicako Ibaraki

Also presented at Designersblock was the Line floor light by Chicako Ibaraki. It reminds me of the work of Dan Flavin and Ron Gilad and has a starkness and simplicity that I find refreshing.

Fabien Cappello

This piece for salvage and design specialists Retrouvius makes use of discarded drawer bottoms taken from the Natural History Museum. They are held together with simple wooden pegs meaning that no glue is used in the construction of the shelves.

Minarets by Kacper Hamilton and Ezgi Turksoy

The starting point for these decanters was a collection of glass endpieces gathered from a London workshop. The vessels were then produced to fit the stoppers whose shapes evoke the skyline of Istanbul with its spires and minarets. Available from Mint.

Shine by Geoffrey Mann

Shine was just one of a fascinating array of objects put together by Max Fraser for Lab Craft – a presentation of contemporary craft produced with the aid of innovative digital processes.

Softwood chairs by Veronika Wildgruber

Incredible craftsmanship and attention to detail creates the optical illusion that the seats and backs of these chairs are soft upholstery when, in fact, they are hand carved from solid wood.

Lee Broom

Lee Broom opened a new showroom on Rivington Street in east London during LDF. He presented his latest product One Light Only as well as previous designs including this vintage chair decorated with a neon border.

Gary Allson

The Origin craft fair took place at Spitalfields Market this year. I love Gary Allson‘s hand turned wooden bowls made from sustainably sourced woods including cedar, walnut and burnt oak.