My Top Picks for London Design Festival 2025 - Material Focus
If you’re heading to London Design Festival this year and are feeling a little overwhelmed about what to see, here are my top picks all with a materials or circularity focus.
Everywhere you look this year, materials are doing more than decorating; they’re carrying stories, doing ethical work, demanding accountability. My top picks for this year are chosen with that in mind: installations and exhibitions that aren’t merely about novelty, but about process, place, repair, reuse, care and community.
Each of the following shows invites you to see more than just the finished piece. They ask questions. What if demolition waste becomes design opportunity? What if what happens under the surface, the grime, the labour, the slow work is as important as innovation? What about community, care, and memory? These are the works that feel urgent, inspiring and that I believe carry some of LDF’s most important stories this year.
Check opening days and times as they do vary quite a bit!
Clay | Culture | Carbon : A Journey Through Material, Memory & Meaning
There’s something deeply compelling about clay right now. The way it carries stories of place, craft, and the past, while also pointing toward new sustainable futures. Clay | Culture | Carbon by Morris+Company captures that tension beautifully: exploring clay as memory, material & meaning. It’s not just about what clay was, but how it could be reimagined in buildings, in communities, in conversations about carbon and environmental responsibility.
Opening Times:
15-21 September 2025
15-19 September: 09:00 - 17:00
20-21 September: 10:00 - 16:00
Location:
Morris+Company,
215-217 Mare Street,
London, E8 3QE
Cost / Tickets: Free, no ticket required
More info
FibreLab’s Circular Textile Recycling & Innovation Hub
If you’re curious about what “circular textile design” really looks like in practice, this is it. FibreLab is opening up its studio to let visitors behind the scenes to see how textile waste is being re-engineered into new fibres, fabrics, and products. From bespoke recycling machinery to material innovations, we all love a behind-the-scenes look, and this one is particularly important to show the labour and care that goes into recycling work.
Visiting Information
Opening Times:
19-20 September 2025, 11:30 — 19:00 each day
Location:
FibreLab
Studio 1, 121 Monier Road, London E3 2PS
Cost / Tickets: Free, no ticket required
Material Matters London at Space House
Material Matters is back for its fourth edition, and this year it’s more vital than ever. Set in the striking, modernist Space House near Holborn and Covent Garden, the fair gathers together designers, makers and brands who are pushing the boundaries of what materials can do. From bio-fabrics and mycelium composites to clever recycling and surface innovation. It’s a place to be inspired, to discover new sustainable alternatives, and to see how material thinking can reshape the built environment.
My take: It’s so exciting that materials have become a key focus of LDF this year. Material Matters is now the biggest show on the schedule, which says a lot: the largest stages are now centred on environmental solutions and material innovation.
Visiting Information
Opening Times:
17-20 September 2025
• 17 Sept: 10:00 – 18:00
• 18 Sept: 10:00 – 21:30
• 19 Sept: 10:00 – 18:00
• 20 Sept: 10:00 – 18:00
Location:
Space House, 1 Kemble Street (Kingsway), London WC2B 4AN
Entry:
Free for trade with advance registration; £12 for the public (tickets also available on the door).
Reimagining Demolition : Prima Materia
Prima Materia is doing something really inspiring with Reimagining Demolition. They’re diverting high-quality materials that would otherwise go to waste in a demolition from the former Travelodge at 1 Museum Street, reworking them into beautifully made furniture pieces in their first capsule collection. It’s a powerful example of circular design in action, giving materials a second life with respect, craftsmanship, and creativity. Great for anyone interested in sustainability, craftsmanship, and how design can help reduce waste.
My take: We are starting to see a focus this year on the less glamorous side of circularity — the processes that take time and care, that are dirty and messy. This is essential work, and arguably more important than the material innovation side of things.
Visiting Information
Opening Times:
17 Sept: 12:00 — 18:00
18 Sept: 12:00 — 20:00
19 Sept: 12:00 — 18:00
20 Sept: 11:00 — 17:00
21 Sept: 11:00 — 16:00
Location:
Prima Materia Studio, 35 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BH
Cost / Entry: Free, no ticket required
Interior Design Declares Applied
This session puts the “pledge” into practice. Interior Design Declares Applied brings together designers, clients and manufacturers who are actively integrating circular, regenerative and climate-conscious principles into interior design. Expect to hear about real case studies — from low-impact material sourcing, product reuse & disassembly, to evaluating whole-life carbon. It’s where ideals meet action.
My take: I love the work that Interior Design Declares is doing. Whenever I’ve been to their sessions in the past, they’ve always booked experts who are striving towards more sustainable design, who have excellent knowledge, and who spark real debate. This session is running on Wednesday 17th only!
Visiting Information
Date & Time: 17 September 2025, 17:00 — 19:30
Location: EC1 Design District, Humanscale, 200 St. John Street, London EC1V 4RN
Entry / Tickets: Paid, ticket required
Heal, Home, Hmmm : Roo Dhissou
This striking sculptural pavilion blends artistry, materiality and care in a deeply resonant way. Heal, Home, Hmmm is built using clay reclaimed from HS2 sites along with traditional Punjabi mud-building techniques. Commissioned by the V&A, the project explores how structure isn’t just physical: it’s about access, care, environmental responsibility and community. The sound installation by Oliver Romoff adds a sensory layer.
Visiting Information
Opening Times:
13-19 September 2025, daily 10:00 - 17:45
Location:
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL
Cost / Tickets: Free, no ticket required
The Car Boot Sale — Slancha & Formd
Slancha, in collaboration with Formd, plays with the idea of the classic car boot sale . The communal, quirky, second-hand, the repurposed, and reimagines it through contemporary design. Emerging designers from across the UK are invited to make one-of-a-kind pieces using reused or repurposed materials. It’s playful, poetic, and rich with stories of hidden value, material afterlives, and what we choose to discard or preserve.
My take: I love that this taps into the overlooked, the discarded, the humble stuff. It’s not about shiny innovation so much as reconnecting with what already exists. My pals from Formd also sourced the smallest car they could find to fit through the doors of the studio, so i’m going to see that too!
Opening Times:
17-21 September 2025: 10:00 — 18:00 each day
Location:
Shoreditch Design Triangle, 228 Brick Lane, London E2 7EE
Cost / Entry: Free, no ticket required
Beyond Foam — EcoLattice at Aram
This exhibition takes a hard look at one of design’s biggest problem materials: polyurethane foam. At Beyond Foam, EcoLattice presents an alternative, a 3D-printed lattice structure made from recyclable elastomers (like TPU) and challenges eight UK-based designers to rethink what comfort, seating, and furniture might be if the filler inside sofas, chairs, and cushions was more sustainable. It’s a smart mix of material innovation and design experimentation, with playful prototypes and functional concepts.
My take: I have seen this company grow over the last year from prototypes to a product coming onto market. It’s great to see this innovation develop, also Aram gallery is always great for a drool over classic furniture design.
Visiting Information
Opening Times: 11 September to 1 November 2025 , Monday to Saturday, 10:00 – 18:00
Location: Aram Gallery, 110 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2B 5SG
Cost / Entry: Free; no ticket required
North Acton Village Hut — ReCollective + Social Designs
This is an ambitious and community-focused build. The Village Hut is being constructed using reclaimed timber (mostly from Park Royal’s film industry), prefabricated into timber cassettes, then assembled on-site. The finishing touches, lime render and clay plaster use waste clay from an HS2 site nearby. Throughout LDF, you’ll be able to see the process up close, participate in workshops, and ask questions of those doing the actual making. It’s “material first” design at work, and a powerful example of anticipatory design: letting available materials lead the design rather than retrofitting for them.
My take: I was lucky enough to work on some of the lime render for this project and learnt so much from the ReCollective team. This project is a real gem of collaboration and material first approaches.
Visiting Information
Dates: 13-16 September 2025 London Design Festival
Opening Times: 11:00 — 16:00 each day London Design Festival
Location: North Acton Village Hut, North Acton Square, London W3 6UP