Top 10 Must-Sees at the London Design Festival 2025

London Design Festival Kicks Off with a Plethora of Exhibitions and Installations

The London Design Festival 2025 is underway, bringing a city-wide celebration of design to the heart of the British capital. Led by Festival Director Ben Evans, this year's event showcases an array of installations and exhibitions that promise to delight and inspire.

One of the highlights is the collaboration between Max Radford Gallery and Ercol, which has seen seven London-based designers create new work in collaboration with the British brand. The resulting pieces will be on display at the Clerkenwell Fire Station, a grade II listed building completed in 1917.

Another noteworthy exhibition is 'The Objects we Live By', curated by Emma Louise Payne, which fills a west London townhouse with crafted design pieces. The show includes the work of artists Ayo Akingbade and Savinder Bual, designers Jochen Holz, Louise Lenborg Skajem, Aura Murillo, Max Frommeld and TK Hay, poets Ella Frears and Will Harris, and filmmakers Cherish Oteka and Onyeka Igwe.

Design London Shoreditch, a new multi-venue design fair, also makes its debut this year. The fair includes exhibitions at Design Culture, Kachette, Design At Work, Protein Studios, and Design Icon, all located in Shoreditch. The exhibitions cover workplace design, sustainability, and interiors trends.

Brompton Design District, curated by Alex Tieghi-Walker this year, offers a diverse range of exhibitions. While the available search results do not provide information about the person curating the district during the London Design Festival 2025, it's clear that Tieghi-Walker has invited different curators and non-traditional exhibition spaces for the district.

Material Matters returns for its fourth edition at Space House, located at 1 Kemble Street, WC2B 4AN. The exhibition features works in pine resin by Jacob Marks and new materials developed by Taiwanese company FILIE Materials. Mycoworks will also present a new material cultivated from mycelium at Material Matters.

The Aram Gallery commissions eight London-based designers to reinterpret foam-filled furniture using EcoLattice's 3D-printed lattice. The exhibition features designs by emerging UK designers including Jesse Butterfield, Jacob Marks, Yasmin Lennon-Chong and Sofia Matheou.

The David Collins Foundation presents an exhibition named Convergence at The Lavery, located at 4 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE. Curated by journalist and broadcaster Ellen E. Jones, the show brings together work by eleven artists and designers.

A landmark project commission at Trafalgar Square, What Nelsons Sees by Paul Cocksedge, offers visitors a new point of view to the city from Admiral Nelson's perspective. Lee Broom created a site-specific light installation inspired by the Southbank's Brutalist architecture.

Ten districts across the city are opening up studios, heritage buildings, and galleries for the festival. These include Empire House and Dalmeny House, two historic mixed-use buildings in one of the districts.

Design Everything stages 'A Seat at the Table', a furniture exhibition that will travel around London in a Luton van. The exhibition runs from 11 September - 1 November and is located at Aram, 110 Drury Ln, London WC2B 5SG.

The exhibition marking the studio's 40th anniversary, 'David Collins: A Life in Design', reflects on the enduring influence of Collins' creative vision and his commitment to nurturing talent. The exhibition runs from 13-21 September at Seventy Six, 76 Sussex Square, London, W2 2SS.

The festival continues to celebrate the arts and design, with institutions such as the V&A and the Design Museum participating in the event. It's a testament to the vibrant and innovative design scene in London, making it a must-visit for design enthusiasts.