London Design Festival: preview

Armani/Casa

The inimitable Armani/Casa range goes from strength to strength with two new ranges being launched over the festival at the London store. ‘Bridge’ is the great Italian’s first foray into kitchen design. The bronze and black metal combined with a dark sukupira Brazilian wood make for a dramatic and glamorous combination of design and technology. ‘For Him and for Her’ is aimed at dispelling the myth of male and female aesthetics being incompatible in the home. The collection comprises textiles and furniture and accessories in beige, gold and bronze for her, blue grey, gunmetal and black for him. Both launches follow the Armani design ethos of functionality and sophistication in spades.

When: 20th to 25th September

Where: Armani/Casa, 113 New Bond Street, W1S 1DP

Moroso shop opening

Patrizia Moroso is opening her first store in London, celebrating 'Moroso British Soul' by showcasing the work of the fours London-based designers who work with Moroso: Ron Arad, Ross Lovegrove, Doshi Levien (Nipa Dhosi and Jonathan Levien) and Tom Dixon. The idea behind exhibiting the four designers’ works is that they all embody very different aspects of the city’s character – each has a very different manner and style of working, informed by their individual, diverse backgrounds: Arad is British-Mediterranean, Lovegrove is Welsh, Nipa Doshi is Indian and Tom Dixon was born in Tunisia and of a French/Latvian mother.

When: 18 September

Where: 22-24, St. Giles High Street, WC2 H8T

Casa Decor Loft

This innovative project was born over 20 years ago in Argentina and has spread, through Latin America to Portugal and Spain and has subsequently infiltrated the global design world. The premise is to take an empty building and give it over to emerging native design and architecture practises who in collaboration with established global manufacturers, are allocated spaces over the course of a month to showcase their ideas without being tied to the constraints of client requirements. Casa Decor's first appearance in London will see the ground floor of a Covent Garden space turned into a living room and bar area, ahead of next year’s plan to take over an entire house.

When: 23rd to 30th September

Where: Number One, The Piazza, Covent Garden, WC2

Designersblock

An annual favourite of ours, we can hardly believe Designersblock is celebrating its 10th anniversary already. After curating 34 events in 10 countries involving over 600 companies, they’re something of past masters at staging events for the design crowd. This year there are three particular projects we’re looking forward to: ‘Liquid Projects’ is a live, ongoing performance involving the left over bottles from the launch event, a kiln and a handful of the country’s finest glass blowers; ‘Handled with Care’ in association with Designboom is an exhibition of contemporary ceramics; ‘London Igloos’ is a project by Matthew Plummer Fernandez addressing sustainability issues, pertinently tackling the vast amount of newspaper waste around London. The artist has collected discarded newspapers from the city and created igloos, to be placed at several key spaces throughout the festival.

When: 19th to 23rd September

Where: Nicholls & Clarke building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, E1

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14 September 2004 | Design