Preview: London Design Festival 2022 – what to look forward to • Hotel Designs

Staying true to its mantra of being a truly democratic design event, the 2022 edition of London Design Festival will once again shine a bold new light on the city through its programme of installations; museum exhibits; the Design Districts that highlight clusters of creative activity across the capital; and the Global Design Forum, the Festival’s thought leadership programme, which will bring together creative leaders to exchange ideas and solutions for some of the most pressing issues of our time.

For Sir John Sorrell CBE, London Design Festival Chairman, this year is a year to reflect as well as to look ahead, while celebrating what it takes to be different in the design arena. “We consciously founded the London Design Festival to be public spirited,” he said. “Different from other design events, we not only aim to support designers by helping them showcase their work and generate business, but importantly to create an understanding and appreciation for the creative industries by as wide an audience as possible.”

Image credit: London Design Festival

With an almost overwhelming list of events and venues, where do you start? Design District is London’s new permanent home for the creative industries seems like a good place to launch the week. Set on Greenwich Peninsula, the venue comprises of 16 buildings by eight world-leading architects within the most ambitious urban development in the history of London’s creative industries.

Staying in the area, Design London returns to North Greenwich for its second edition, following its debut in 2021, as the destination for contemporary design where architects and interior designers can source cutting-edge furniture, kitchens and bathrooms, lighting and architectural fittings all under one roof.

Swing by St Giles Square. Commissioned on the occasion of London Design Festival’s 20th anniversary, Swivel is an installation which aims to bring colour and interactivity to St Giles Square, a vibrant new public space beside Tottenham Court Road. This area is a place of transition, and the installation will animate the environment, demonstrating the power of design to bring people together and providing visitors with an opportunity to connect, reflect, and enjoy.

It would be remise of visitors partaking in LDF to not spend some time at the V&A. London Design Festival at the V&A is a unique collaboration between the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance, and LDF. Now entering the 13th year together as the official Festival Hub, the collaboration will see iconic spaces within the museum transformed by an extraordinary collection of specially specially-commissioned installations and displays by international contemporary designers.

One of these installations, The Lebanese House: saving a home, saving a city, is an installation at the V&A installed for London Festival of Architecture by Annabel Karim Kassar that explores the reconstruction of Beirut after the 2020 explosion.

Image credit: London Design Festival / Victoria and Albert Museum

Step INTO SIGHT at Cromwell Place – a life-sized media platform, which plays on sensorial effects that transform simple boundary surfaces into an infinite vista through shifting light, colour and sound. Stepping into the installation unleashes a unique response; as audiences venture further inside, they will become more aware of unexpected visual and audio dimensions that continuously evolve through their interactions. This project aims to capture and discover new insights regarding the coexistence of physical and meta realities.

Image credit: London Design Festival

With a comprehensive range of debates, discussions and conversations, every subject under the design umbrella will have its place in the sun – even if we are talking September in London! Aside from spending our time traversing London to absorb all the week has to offer, Hotel Designs will be hosting three of these conversations during the course of the week.

On the September 19, we will be in the Atlas Concorde showroom where we will lead a discussion exploring ideas of ‘Nature versus Nurture in Surface Design’.

Putting an immersive spin on the activities, on the September 22, Hotel Designs will be in the Hansgrohe The Water Studio for an exclusive Wellness Set led by designer Wren Louks, the founder of Be-kin. This will be an exciting watercolour art experience for interior designers as away to stimulate creativity during LDF.

Rounding off the week, On September 24, from 13:00 – 14:00, Editor Hamish Kilburn will chair a panel discussion with Interior Design Declares, with the aim to establish how the design community can collectively create spaces more consciously.

So, get yourself a programme and put on those walking shoes!

Main image credit: London Design Week