News from London Design Festival, Swedish fabrics and American citizen photographers

Last modified on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 05.01 EDT

After a long break, the design world became active again. The London Design Festival (LDF) is back this year, and on a larger scale than ever before. The capital will have three other design zones-including the Greenwich Peninsula design zone. It is hoped that this new development will become a new creative district in London, showcasing the work of eight different architects. Designing a great location in London, this is a new activity of LDF. It is also a new plant, a design show that tries to connect man and nature. In the end, it feels like green shoots are emerging.

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This fall, the London design event is back. The London Design Festival (LDF) was held in September across the city with an unprecedented scale. Three new design districts were added this year-Greenwich Peninsula Design District, Royal Park Design District and Southwark Design District. Sustainability and circular economy are a major feature, but the design community is also considering the next generation in other ways. Recent graduates and young people are at the core of many festival activities.

In a project supported by the American Hardwood Export Council and furniture studio Benchmark, 10 students and graduates are designing red oak sculpture road signs, one for each of the 10 LDF districts. Each signpost-or Designpost-reflects the characteristics of the design area it represents.

Also for LDF, the collective Resolve of the London youth group will use recycled museum materials to create an installation called Made on Location for the main entrance hall of the V&A.

Planted-aiming to be the first zero waste design event-is also scheduled to take place in September. This event has an exhibition of green graduates, showing graduates' ideas on energy conservation, conservation and environmental protection materials. Designers include Emma Appleton and Green Pipe, a water collection and filtration system that allows plants to thrive on underutilized walls and surfaces. Vegetation can remove carbon dioxide and reduce the risk of flooding. There is Callum Wardle, who made beach toys from plastic marine waste in his project Ocean Bucket. They can be rented out on Devonshire beaches where rubbish is collected. Lawrence Parent showed Living Blocks, an open source formula he used to modify simple molds to imitate natural stone. Textured surfaces are good for vegetation and wildlife, making urban landscapes more popular.

It seems that the future is in your hands.

The London Design Festival will be held in London from September 18th to 26th, 2021. Planted at King's Cross Station from September 23 to 26

Neil Hamamoto, the artist and founder of Worthless Studio, chose the name of his non-profit organization because this is how he feels: worthless. He quit his job in a California technology startup in 2018 to become a sculptor in his hometown of New York, and was shocked by the city's lack of community and commercialization of the art world. Through Worthless, he wants to bring back some friendship and support the creation of public art. Now, his studio provides space, materials and advice for aspiring artists of all backgrounds.

Last year's plywood protection project obtained the plywood used to board the shop windows during the blockade, and distributed the "black man's fate" protest to artists to create a public monument. These works of art have now been completed, one in each of the five boroughs of New York.

This year brought two worthless free movie project books. The team initially converted the 1973 Airstream trailer into darkrooms across the United States in 2019, and distributed the film to participants (anyone who arrived and asked to shoot) who had to follow the red, white, and blue themes.

When pandemics and protests swept the streets of the United States in 2020, they again distributed the film and edited the images into an archive of one of the most turbulent years in the United States. Air is a software startup platform that supports the project by creating a gallery of thousands of images to classify the racial and cultural injustices seen by everyday photographers across the United States. Anyone who purchases a copy of the free movie book with a password can access these images.

"Our mission is to support artists by providing them with the tools and space they need to create," Hamamoto said. "We focus on supporting artists, creating public art, and educating impoverished youth in artistic practice. These projects play a role in the ecosystem we are trying to build."

Free movies: US and free movies: available for pre-order in June 2020. They were released on September 13

The British Ceramic Biennale (BCB) is back this year. The festival is the largest ceramic event in the UK and helped to revitalize Stoke-on-Trent, the birthplace of the British ceramic industry. The Goods Yard, an old warehouse in the center of Stoke, will also host events in the original Spode factory and pottery museum and art gallery.

Highlights include Stoke Makes Plates, a 250-plate installation designed by residents of Stoke-on-Trent, including nursing home residents and rehabilitation addicts, commissioned artists, and local ceramic manufacturers. There is also Fresh, an exhibition of new young potters, including Popalini and Jezando who taught themselves to throw with the help of YouTube, and Sarah Strachan, who first discovered clay in a community art club. There will also be an installation inspired by Wedgwood's Anti-Slavery Medal, designed in 1787 by company founder Josiah Wedgwood.

"We are really happy to be back," said Ian Cartwright, executive director of BCB. "In addition to bringing the city back to life, this festival will also be an opportunity to show how artists use clay to create thought-provoking, often politically charged works."

The British Ceramics Biennale will be held from September 11th to October 17th

Fjällräven backpacks were previously made from recycled or upgraded recycled materials, but this fall launched Tree-Kånken, the company’s first bag made from a new, sustainably sourced wood pulp fabric.

The raw materials for Pine Weave come from certified plantations on the outskirts of Fjällräven's hometown of Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. "First of all, this means that we have a deep understanding of Pine Weave's source of raw materials," said product developer Johanna Mollberg, "and we have a direct dialogue with all partners in our supply chain."

Fjällräven fabrics are stronger and more durable than most existing plant-based materials, and are coated to make them stronger. Using wood materials instead of fossil materials means that less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. "We believe that this type of cellulose and wood fabrics are part of the solution to transition from a linear society based on fossils to a recycling society based on biology," said Christiane Dolva, director of global sustainability.

Although Tree-Kånken is made of very modern fabrics, its style is retro. It was inspired by the first Kånken backpack, which was first thrown on the school playground in 1978.

"We learned a lot during the development of Pine Weave," Mollberg said. "We have some exciting ideas in the pipeline right now. We are just getting started."

Writer and curator Corinne Mynatt developed an interest in kitchen appliances through her design research journey and great passion for cooking. After receiving artist training in Pratt in New York and Central St Martin in London, she studied situational design in Eindhoven. Before becoming a freelance filmmaker and writer, she worked as a curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects. She will still find herself looking at the cooking equipment.

"The interesting items I found in European flea markets piqued my interest," Mynatt explained. "These tools are a gateway to other cultures and cuisines. I realized that from a design perspective, there is a lack of investigation of these objects. They form an important part of the history of cooking and design." Mynatt uses her forthcoming book "Food Tools" corrected this problem-it was an enjoyable journey through hundreds of years of kitchen innovation around the world.

Mynatt's love is so deep that she finds it difficult to pick out her favorite among these ingenious gadgets. "My first choice is presse-ail et dénoyateur (garlic press and pitter). This is a French medieval aluminum multi-function tool. It started my interest. It was followed by shikizaru, a type used in Japan. The exquisitely woven bamboo cradle for steaming delicate food; and Thayer's Universal Tool (1881), which is another multi-functional tool, an excellent expression of the world after the 1851 World Expo. There are many important design/culture/ Cooking/material history...uranium reamer, lemon juicer (not just Alessi)...the list goes on!"

Food Tools (Hardie Grant) was published on September 16. Follow Instagram on @tools_for_food

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia, will host a new exhibition called "Sampling the Future" this week. It showcases the work of designers that reimagine the way objects and buildings are made, and find ways to deal with climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

One of the most fascinating exhibits is a new commission from Melbourne artist Alex Goad. He created MARS (Modular Artificial Reef Structure) using ceramics and oyster shell concrete. These elegant geometric structures-mimicking coral reef foundations-were created using 3D printing and traditional manufacturing to provide habitat to help damaged marine ecosystems. They mimic the calcium skeletons of dead corals, which have been accumulated over thousands of years to form the scaffolding that anchors the living corals. Goad’s Coral Reef Design Laboratory has many ongoing research projects—including oyster reefs in the North Sea and mangrove plantations in Victoria’s coastal forests—but NGV will showcase a large structure that visitors can walk through so they can admire The craftsmanship imitated by humans is naturally first-hand.

Sampling the Future will last until February 6, 2022