Location: London
Dates: 21–24 September 2017
As the platform for cutting-edge design at the annual London Design Festival, design junction delivers a specially curated programme of stellar international brands, striking installations, pop-up shops, exciting collaborations, and more.
A first for designjunction, a collaboration with Turkishceramics will present a striking and fully immersive ceramic installation that will be created in the central fountain space. The selected artist Adam Nathaniel Furman will present ‘Gateways’, a series of colourful tiled gates that will invite visitors to take a journey through the rich history of ceramics in Turkey. The four gates are four meters high, each encompassing a different design story including: The Classic Gate, The Timber Gate, The Retro Gate and The Metro Gate.
Offering beautiful flowers direct from Dutch fields, flower delivery service bloomon will create a whimsical walk underneath a canopy of flowers with a pastel coloured passageway on Granary Square. Covered in foliage inside and out, the tunnel will be closed at one end with a secret hidden door, behind which a flower-filled room will host intimate workshops and talks, providing intrigue and inspiration.
The square will also provide a platform for a new collaboration with Renault UK, and will showcase Renault’s unique design philosophy with the award-winning concept TreZor car housed inside a bespoke interactive structure. Additionally, Renault’s collaboration with Central Saint Martins UAL (CSM) has challenged design students to design a car for the future with the results also on display at the show.
Campari®, Italy’s iconic red bittersweet apéritif, will host a two-week residency in Kings Cross. Campari Creates recreates the spirit of Milan’s stylish Navigli canal district, bringing a customised narrowboat to the Granary Square waterway throughout designjunction. The residency will focus on bringing two of Milan’s greatest exports to Kings Cross: Campari and creativity.
Over the two-week residency, a series of ‘Campari Creates Masterclasses’ allows attendees to get creative whilst sipping one of Campari’s signature serves. Alongside this, an artist will be commissioned to build a bespoke public installation inspired by Campari’s long history of creativity and design.
Granary Square will also welcome the Tala Mini bar that will serve a concoction of white ports and tonics from a refurbished vintage Mini Cooper. The Mini will also house a cluster of Voronoi bulbs on its roof to form a forest-like canopy, taking inspiration from the natural world.
Welcoming visitors to the show, three glass box pavilions by new initiative Remote Possibilities will house the show’s main reception. This focal point for designjunction visitors will be located at the entrance to Granary Square, alongside specially curated headline projects.
Design practice Maynard has partnered with designjunction to mastermind the wayfinding strategy for visitors coming to the King’s Cross site. Working in collaboration with designjunction’s Graphic Directors, BCMH, they have devised a strategy that will be used across the show.
Maynard has also worked with Marshalls to design a new range of brutalist inspired concrete street furniture. The modular range which includes seating, lighting and cycle parking will be launched at designjunction and will be positioned around Granary Square for the event.
Running through the centre of Central Saint Martins, The Crossing will play home to installations and partnership projects, including a collaboration with Rado, who will be showing finalists’ designs for the first Rado Star Prize UK competition. Targeting the next generation of young British designers, the winner will be announced at the show on the evening of Thursday 21 September.
Lighting up The Crossing, a union of light and porcelain welcomes a collaboration from two French studios BLACKBODY and Haviland, drawing visitors to glance up toward clusters of the ‘Helen, Light & Porcelain’ bespoke chandelier.
Bringing a luxe approach to the VIP and Press room, The Lounge by Kirkby Design x Eley Kishimoto will showcase each of their unique styles. Eley Kishimoto’s passion for pattern will adorn the walls and furniture within this space serving to relax as well as engage those who visit.
The Lounge, located in new venue for 2017 Cubitt Park, will also play host to several special events including the Press Preview on 21 September; a breakfast for RIBA members; the Blueprint iGuzzini Architectural Photography Awards; and an NLA networking event.
In celebration of photography that fuses architecture, Blueprint Magazine launches its first ever Blueprint iGuzzini Architecture Photography Awards, aimed at both professional and amateur photographers. Photography from the finalists will be displayed within Cubitt Park, with two overall winners chosen by a public vote and announced during designjunction.
Prizes for the winning photography include a £1000 cash prize (professional) and an iGuzzini light worth £1000 (amateur), with 25% of the competition entrance fee being donated to charity Teddy’s Wish.
Suspended over the staircase of Cubitt House, Resident Studio will create an installation with its Circus Light that encompasses a system of interconnected rings to form a striking vertical decoration. Each brass ring projects an elegantly diffused warm LED light source outwards around a 360-degree plane.
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