London Design Festival 2015: Live-wire insects among installations at ‘buzzing’ shows

The London Design Festival kicks off this weekend with installations all over the capital from the V&A to the Greenwich Peninsula
Noisy: model insects in bulbs at the V&A
Robert Dex @RobDexES18 September 2015

Some of the world’s most creative minds are using London as their gallery to show off a range of innovative designs over the next week.

The London Design Festival, which started in 2003, is hosting more than 350 events at galleries, showrooms and shops, with distinct cultural hubs at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Somerset House.

Among the designers transforming the V&A are Faye Toogood who has created 10 coats — made from materials including wood, fibreglass and terracotta — which were inspired by exhibits already on show. The South Kensington institution, which has been a festival venue for seven years, is also temporarily home to an 18-metre-high monolith decorated with custom-made Swarovski crystals two-and-a-half times their usual size. Titled Zotem, it is by Norwegian Kim Thomé.

Monolith: Zotem features giant crystals

Another of the museum’s rooms has been transformed by the addition of 250 hand-blown glass bulbs, each one containing a hand-made model insect that comes to life and noisily collides with the inside of the glass as visitors get nearer. The installation by Austrian design duo mischer’traxler is called Curiosity Cloud.

The festival’s director Ben Evans said: “The opportunity to have a residency in the V&A each year is a rare honour.”

Other large-scale exhibits include a 35-metre-high electricity pylon on the Greenwich Peninsula which appears to have been shot into the ground, and design districts in areas including Bankside, Chelsea and Clerkenwell.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: “This brilliant and buzzing gathering of international talent not only underlines London’s pre-eminent position as the design capital of the world, it is a barometer for what our world could look like in the future.”

The London Design Festival runs from September 20-27; londondesignfestival.com

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