Neri Oxman, Eva Jiřičná, Grace Wales Bonner and Hussein Chalayan have been revealed as winners of the 2018 British Land London Design Medal winners. Now in its 12th year, the awards honour key figures who have a significant influence on the design industry, from emerging talent to leading names that mastermind innovation, imagination and more.
Former winners of the medals include Es Devlin, Zaha Hadid and Ron Arad, and this year’s winners show particularly boundary breaking sprit with many entwining creative practices, like Lifetime Achievement Medal winner, Czech architect Eva Jiřičná who has been recognised for her poignant contribution to the design industry. Jiřičná is celebrating 50 years in the UK this year, and her work seamlessly merges her engineering and architecture backgrounds with the interiors of commercial spaces including the Lloyds of London building, a project she spearheaded during her time at Richard Rogers Partnership (also a recipient of this award back in 2014), and Joseph fashion stores.
Another multi-platform player is Hussein Chalayan, winner of the The Panerai London Design Medal for continued design excellence. Also a recipient of a 2018 Wallpaper* Design Award, Chalayan has a unique ability to include art and performance in his works, and his collaborations with the likes of Bjork, Tilda Swinton and Sadler’s Wells anchor him as an industry game changer. He is also the second fashion designer to win this medal, following the footsteps of Paul Smith in 2009. Meanwhile, British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner has been bestowed the Emerging Design Medal. Recently graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2015, the designer, who won the LVMH Prize in 2016, has become a much-praised name for her intellectual, bold and studied approach to menswear design.
The London Design Medal
Also pushing the limits of design trajectories is American–Israeli architect, designer, and professor at the MIT Media Lab, Neri Oxman who scoops the Design Innovation Medal for international entrepreneurship. Oxman’s experimental design studio sees generative design, digital fabrication, material science, synthetic biology and ecology collide, as seen in her series of 3D-printed death masks augmented with pigment-producing micro-organisms, Vespers (2016–18). Oxman’s outer reaches of design can be further discovered in her Guest Editor pages of the October 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (out on 13 September).
The four will be awarded during The British Land Celebration of Design on Monday 17 September at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, and for the second time, the winners works will go on view at the V&A Museum during the public to experience the impact of their designs first hand in an exhibition curated by Jane Withers and designed by Czech collective Okolo.
Vespers (2016–18) mask compilation by Neri Oxman, winner of the Design Innovation Medal
The Cultural and University Centre designed by Eva Jiricna and AI – DESIGN in Zlín, Czech Republic
Hussein Chalayan with dancers Stephanie McMann and Marso Riviere, who starred in Gravity Fatigue, a contemporary dance show that the designer directed at Sadler’s Wells, as seen in the September 2015 edition of Wallpaper* (W*198)
Wales Bonner S/S 2018
INFORMATION
British Land Celebration of Design Medal Exhibition is on view 15-23 September at the V&A Museum during London Design Festival. For more information, visit the website
ADDRESS
Cromwell Rd
Knightsbridge
London
SW7 2RL
-
Meet Malak Mattar, the Palestinian artist behind the 'Together for Palestine' concert at London's Wembley ArenaThe London-based artist curates a landmark concert of music and art in support of Gaza, alongside Brian Eno, James Blake, Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry and more
-
A new coffee table book proves that one designer’s trash is another’s treasureThe Rizzoli tome, launching today (16 September 2025), delves into the philosophy and process of Retrouvius, a design studio reclaiming salvaged materials in weird and wonderful ways
-
A carbon-emission-busting house, yeast-biomass building, and more ‘Designs for a Cooler Planet’‘Designs for a Cooler Planet’ returns to Aalto University in Finland as part of the annual Helsinki design and architecture week, highlighting buildings, materials and solutions towards a better future
-
Norman Foster and nine other architects design birdhouses for charity – you can bid‘Architects for the Birds’ is spearheaded by Norman Foster and the Tessa Jowell Foundation to raise funds to improve treatment for brain cancer. Ten architect-designed birdhouses will go up for auction
-
The David Collins Foundation celebrates creativity in all its forms at London Design FestivalThe David Collins Foundation presents ‘Convergence’ at the Lavery during London Design Festival 2025 (on view until 19 September), featuring works from the Arts Foundation’s annual Futures Awards
-
Lee Broom’s brutalist-inspired ‘Beacon’ will light up London as Big Ben strikes the hourSet to pulse through London Design Festival 2025 (13-22 September) and beyond, the British industrial designer’s sculptural light installation on the South Bank draws on its surroundings
-
Yuri Suzuki turns sound into architecture at Camden Arts ProjectsThe sound designer unveils ‘Utooto’, an interactive installation at London’s Camden Arts Projects (until 5 October 2025), in which visitors collaboratively build a sonic piece of architecture
-
Alex Tieghi-Walker unveils his plans for Brompton Design District 2025Ahead of London Design Festival 2025, we catch up with New York gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker about his appointment as curator of the Brompton Design District programme
-
‘The point was giving ordinary people access to bold taste’: how Ikea brought pattern into the home‘Ikea: Magical Patterns’ at Dovecot Gallery in Edinburgh tells the story of a brand that gave us not only furniture, but a new way of seeing our homes – as canvases for self-expression
-
Design beyond humans: a new exhibition argues that the world doesn’t revolve around us‘More Than Human’ at London's Design Museum (until 5 October 2025) asks what happens when design focuses on the perspectives and needs of other species, from bees to seaweed
-
‘100 Years, 60 Designers, 1 Future’: 1882 Ltd plate auction supports ceramic craftThe ceramics brand’s founder Emily Johnson asked 60 artists, designers, musicians and architects – from John Pawson to Robbie Williams – to design plates, which will be auctioned to fund the next generation of craftspeople
