
Full Spectrum
Country: Australia
Designer: Flynn Talbot
Following Talbot’s immersive light installation at the V&A Museum during London Design Festival last year, the designer returns with another technicolour experience, this time encapsulating the happiness surrounding the recent Australian same-sex marriage legislation. Made up of 150 hanging optic fibre strands, the installation produces an interactive rainbow that visitors can meander through and engage with. Photography: Mark Cocksedge

State of Indigo
Country: India
Curator: Priya Khanchandani
Visitors can step into India’s indigo universe with a series of films exploring the production line of the colour’s dye. Framed within a colonial style structure, the films on repeat include shots of Jodhpur, the Rajasthani city of indigo-hued houses. At the centre of the installation, an escalator that leads to the sky has individuals dressed in indigo overalls and saris on each step appearing as a reflection of the monotony of the process used to generate the unique pigment. The entire show is an ode to the hardworking nature of the republic’s design industry, in particular the natural techniques and meticulous labour

ANIPAKOI
Country: Greece
Designer: Studio INI led by Nassia Inglessis, Lead Designer and Engineer with team E. Brial, M. Vordonarakis, L. Walker, N. L’ Huiller, A. Yioti and with Neiheiser Argyros, C. Hornzee-Jones, Elliott Wood Partnership Ltd.
Somerset House-based Studio INI launches a kinetic installation in the courtyard that reacts to movement. Exploring ideas of disobedience that date back to Ancient Greece, the responsive work expands and contracts as an individual walks through, acting as a gateway to their emotions or ‘a physical megaphone.’ Photography: Ed Reeve

Matter to Matter
Country: Latvia
Designer: Arthur Analts (Variant Studio)
The Latvian participation embraces the country’s harmony between nature and design, and the development of technology in the 21st century. A glass condensation wall reflecting the humidity of the country’s capital of Riga allows visitors to write messages as a form of meditation. The wall is paired with a floor made from Latvian bark and a bench from birch that references the country’s forestry. Photography: Ed Reeve

Desmatamento
Country: Brazil
Designer: David Elia
Offering a taster of the breathtaking beauty of the Amazon rainforest is Elia’s organic installation. The project addresses the issue of deforestation in the country and depicts the ecosystem with Elia’s Desmatamento chairs (2013), symbolising tree trunks found in the Mata Atlântica rainforest. Standing out is a blue pigment that signifies the conservation mark used by forest wardens to indicate trees that are to be saved, giving guests an insight into the sustainable steps the country are taking. Photography: Ed Reeve

The Silent Room
Country: Lebanon
Designer: Nathalie Harb in collaboration with BÜF and 21dB
This year’s Lebanese contribution explores the effect of noise pollution on our emotional state. By creating a room insulated from noise, they are offering guests an experience that is becoming more of a life luxury: silence. The structure lives on the Embankment terrace of Somerset House and acts as an area to repose and connect with thoughts. Photography: Ed Reeve