1 Blankenau by Lukas Wegwerth
At Gallery Fumi, German designer Lukas Wegwerth presented Blankenau, a series of tables handcrafted with willow and hornbeam branches found outside his Blankenau studio. Also on show was Crystallization, a range of broken vases repaired by giant salt crystals.
2 Makers House by The New Craftsmen
The New Craftsmen collaborated with Burberry on Makers House, an elegant pop-up festooned with sculpture, leatherwork and gold leaf created on site by the gallery’s makers.
3 Studio Uufie for Matter of Stuff
Last spring, Toronto’s Studio Uufie did a residency in Montalcino, Italy, with online retailer Matter of Stuff. In a month they completed three tables blending laminated wood, stone and three types of metal.
4 Lebanon at London Design Biennale
Lebanon won the London Design Biennale medal by rocking up to Somerset House with an entire Beirut bazaar designed by architect Annabel Karim Kassar. Stuck onto the pavement outside was an enormous paper map featuring “places that put Beirut on the map.”
5 Mischer’Traxler at London Design Biennale
Also at the Biennale, Austrian lighting wunderkinds Mischer’Traxler fitted paper lampshades with circuits to measure movement and connected them to a complex network of metal beams. The lights give off the strongest illumination when there is perfect balance in the room.
6 Autoban’s Wish Machine
At Autoban’s Wish Machine, Biennale visitors wrote a wish on scrap paper, slipped it into a plastic pod, then sent it flying through a pneumatic spiral.
7 Liquid Marble by Mathieu Lehanneur
Mathieu Lehanneur’s Liquid Marble table gave a realistic impression of the ocean frozen in hand-polished black marble. It was one of the V&A’s landmark exhibitions.
8 Foil by Benjamin Hubert
Benjamin Hubert used a motor by sponsor Braun to power an undulating 65-foot sine-wave inset with 50,000 mirrored triangles. Foil, also at the V&A, ebbed and flowed to an audio track resembling whale music.
9 The Smile by Alison Brooks Architects
One of the festival’s flagship projects, The Smile is the first inhabitable structure using industrial-sized panels of hardwood CLT, or cross-laminated timber. Using just 12 panels of tulipwood CLT, a light, sustainable material arguably tougher, cheaper and easier to use than concrete, architect Alison Brooks constructed a 110-foot “megatube” pinned to the ground with concrete counterweights.
10 Neverland by Emily Forgot
Emily Forgot explored building and space at the design agency/gallery KK Outlet in Hoxton Square. Her exhibition Neverland showed woodworks, rugs and high-relief art with stairs to nowhere and furnishings on the verge of collapse.
11 Brace by Samuel Wilkinson
Industrial designer Samuel Wilkinson launched his Brace steam-bent ash chairs at the Design Unrefined exhibition hosted by concept store Clerkenwell London. He collected the offcuts to suspend around the installation.
12 Error at Present & Correct
At cultish Islington shop Present & Correct, owner Neal Whittington staged Error, a show of 200 vintage rubbers mounted on the wall like a schoolgirl’s painstaking display.
13 Magma by Faye Toogood
Faye Toogood’s studio exhibition Magma featured lava-stone ceramics created with Danish tile-maker Made a Mano. Because the stone comes in immense slabs, it lends itself to the production of large furnishings like this table.
14 Forests by Asif Khan
Forests, by artist Asif Khan, were third-space prototypes dripping with plant life and muffling the sound from the street. They allowed visitors to “take a moment out of the city.”
15 Blend by Raw Colour
Aram Gallery invited Dutch duo Raw Colour to display some of its latest research into textiles and paper. The results, titled Blend, used simple machinery to give the pieces movement, overlapping custom shades to create new hues.