Uplifting blue skies and sunshine kicked off this year's London Design Festival, here's what I saw.
A novel use for old traffic cones: the striking entrance to the
V&A turned out to be part of the
Thomas Heatherwick exhibition
One of the ten benches in the V&A courtyard to mark ten years of the
London Design Festival. This one (above) is called 'Bench of Plates', by architect Amanda Levete's studio
AL_L, and was inspired by the V&A's ceramic collection.
While at the V&A, I attended a talk which posed the timely question: does the world need another chair? 'Out of The Woods: Adventures of 12 Hardwood Chairs' is an interesting collaboration between
RCA students (the designers),
Benchmark Furniture (the manufacturers) and
American Hardwood Export Council (who provided the wood).
The students spent a week down at the Benchmark factory where they produced 12 unique chairs, currently on display at the V&A, with sustainability as a core requirement. Each chair was made using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study which measures the environmental impact of the hardwood from the moment it is chopped down through to the end of its life. So the answer to the question seemed to be: yes, to more chairs, if they are made this way.
I spoke to Sean Sutcliffe, co-founder with Sir Terence Conran of Benchmark, and he said this: "Life Cycle Assessment will be something that ten years from now everyone will talk about. We won't have VAT, we'll have Life Cycle Tax. You won't pay tax on what something costs in money, you'll pay tax on what something costs in real terms”.
Serious global-warming-what-does-the-future-hold-stuff aside... the students' designs were genuinely good.
'Tree Furniture', by RCA student Anton Alvarez is made from a single untreated Cherry wood log to look as if it was carved where it was felled (photo by Petr Krejci)
It was made with just three cuts (photo by Petr Krejci)
Alvarez intended his seat to be something people might chance upon while walking in the woods (photo by Mark O'Flaherty)
'Leftovers Chair', by fellow RCA student Lauren Davies, was inspired by food and cooking, and made from a variety of hardwoods. It has 'smoked' Hickory legs, the seat is 'pickled' in vinegar and Maple spindles 'flavoured' with fruit essences - for a literal take on a classic Windsor kitchen chair.
Over at
Designjunction held in a huge former sorting office on New Oxford Street, W1 there was some highly original re-use and recycling going on with this very fine anchor, the bulbs are made of glass door handles, by
Solid ID
The three-floor warehouse space was the ideal backdrop for a design show. Fifty vintage Chair 69s by
Alvar Aalto (rescued from a building in Finland) in use and for sale at the 2nd Cycle Cafe by
Artek.
This one's for charity:
Joy of Living Part 2 (as previously featured on this
blog) is this year raising money for Maggie's Centres with customised furniture donated by designers.
