South Asian design is no longer confined by geography; it has become a global language of contemporary expression. This year, it crosses borders with a major London showcase worth adding to every design lover’s itinerary.
India and UK-based Raw Collaborative – a design platform championing craft, material innovation and creative exchange – makes its first major international debut with Design Intelligentsia, a showcase at Shoreditch Town Hall. Part of London Design Festival 2026, the exhibition takes place from 15-17 September, bringing together 25 distinctive studios. 'We have been representing and collaborating with these practices over several years, through our previous showcases as well as our engagement with designers, makers and craft communities across India,' says Fateh Singh Bhatia, programme & curatorial lead at Raw Collaborative UK Ltd. 'For this showcase, we were interested in looking beyond the obvious or singular application of a craft.'
While the showcase spotlights studios advancing traditional craft through sophisticated technologies and digital tools, it resists reducing South Asian design to familiar tropes or viewing it solely through the lens of tradition. 'For us, this is the shift from craft-intensive to design-intensive practices; where craft is not simply an aesthetic or a technique, but a way of thinking,' says Tanvi Karia, founder & director of Raw Collaborative UK Ltd.
Here’s a look at some of the most distinctive names participating in the show.
Raw Collaborative - Design Intelligentsia is on view 15-17 September 2026. Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT
South Asian designers to discover at London Design Festival
Baarique
Led by Malika Budhiraj, the predominantly women-run studio has spent the past decade working closely with artisans to create handcrafted and hand-painted objects in brass and bronze, spanning tableware, barware, boxes and urns. For the showcase, they will present a selection of signature pieces alongside a new series of collectible works that pair hand-embroidered Madhubani motifs (a centuries-old folk painting tradition from India and Nepal) with repoussé brass, mounted on handspun Ahimsa silk and developed in collaboration with Madhubani artists.
Ikai Asai
The brand is the brainchild of entrepreneur and artist Ananya Birla. Rooted in material-led storytelling, it places craft communities at the heart of the creative process. At the show, that philosophy comes into sharp focus through objects made using traditions such as papier-mâché, Longpi pottery, brasswork and Channapatna lacquerware, revealing how age-old techniques can find fresh expression in new design.
Khambatta
Founded by Ismet Khambatta in the 1990s, the workshop reinterprets India’s woodworking traditions through a restrained modernist language. Working with timber in its natural form, the practice focuses on the honesty of joints, junctions and material character. At LDF, their presented pieces feel as relevant in a decade as they do today.
Arrti Mansinghka
Her practice began with an exploration of cloth, evolving into richly layered appliqué works in which landscapes, flora, fauna and the human form emerge almost like fragments of memory. At the event, the artist turns to discarded textiles, transforming material once deemed obsolete into deeply evocative compositions.
Wicker Story
Architect Priyanka Narula founded the practice as a way to explore the possibilities of cane and rattan beyond their conventional forms. At the showcase, the studio brings together traditional craft and parametric design methodologies, demonstrating the remarkable adaptability of these natural materials through a modern language.
Latika Nehra
An Indian-born, Berlin-based artist working across ceramics, stone and mixed media, her practice embraces raw surfaces as a counterpoint to the polished aesthetics of digital life. She presents expressive hand-built forms that explore beauty through slowness, materiality and the visible trace of the maker.