Aria Journal:
The 24th edition of London Design Festival is hitting the streets from the 12th–20th September, celebrating our city as the design capital of the world.
Nine days, eleven design districts, and hundreds of talks, installations, launches and open studios, stretching from the V&A and the Barbican right through to Shoreditch, Chelsea and Mayfair - LDF turns the city into one giant showroom. For anyone who lives and breathes interiors, LDF offers a first look at the pieces and ideas that will shape how we furnish and decorate our homes for years to come.
Here are five events we can't wait to see:
1) Reading Magazines, Stack Magazines and St Bride Foundation
Long before Pinterest boards and Instagram, there were magazines - glossy, coffee stained and dog eared, they played a role in shaping the way we live. Interior design and magazine culture are interlinked, dictating trends and delivering ideas straight into people's living rooms.
Stack Magazines and St Bride Foundation come together for a one-day exploration of 300 years of magazine history, tracing the evolution that shaped the magazine as we know it today. For anyone who's ever pulled inspiration from a beautifully styled spread, it's a fascinating look at the medium that's shaped interior design taste for well over a century.
2) Celebrating BOLIA's new Autumn-Winter collection, BOLIA
With its modern Scandinavian sensibility, Bolia crafts timeless upholstery, dining furniture and storage designed to become part of the home for generations. Drawing inspiration from the calming tones of natural landscapes, the brand pairs the finest materials with expert craftsmanship for pieces built to last, the kind of quality that made Bolia an easy addition to our collection at Aria.
To mark their London Design Festival debut, Bolia is inviting visitors to Marylebone to discover the new AW26 Collection - an exploration of what it means to create a home that grows and evolves alongside the people who live in it.
If you have time, it's well worth swinging by their A Creative Moment to Remember event also.
3) Everyday Objects Shape Our World, Travel Things Museum
Travel Things Museum presents 'Everyday Objects Shape Our World', a collection all about finding the extraordinary in the everyday. From ideas of nostalgia to daily routines, the display explores small objects that enrich our lives through purpose, tactility and creative design.
Slowing down and noticing these forms, colours and themes in our daily encounters lets us connect with our surroundings and practices of those who are with us, and those who came before.
See below: the everyday objects of Aria.
4) Kartell, The Shape of Now, Kartell
Established in 1949, Kartell has long stood as an icon of Italian design and technological innovation, collaborating with award-winning names like Philippe Starck, Marcel Wanders and Ferruccio Laviani to create pieces with a truly unmistakable identity.
This London Design Festival, Kartell poses a simple question: what does the chair of now actually look like? Their answer arrives in the form of Savoia, a striking new design and their first collaboration with Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby; one we can't wait to see in person. At Aria, we're always excited to see where Kartell takes things next.
5) Sender Unknown by Aziza Kadyr
No LDF round up would be complete without the V&A - as one of the festival's cornerstones, the museum always has plenty to see.
Sender Unknown by Aziza Kadyri sits right at the crossroads of AI and art. Responding to the V&A's historic suzani collection, Kadyri asks a pointed question: what gets lost when AI reinterprets ancient tradition? Kadyri sits with the discomfort of AI flattening and asks whether the technologies that threaten to erase these histories might instead become tools to preserve them.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, not without its fair share of unease, we're eager to see how Kadyri's work grapples with its implications for the future of the industry.
The London Design Festival reminds us that great design isn't just about the furniture that fills a room, it's about the stories, craft and curiosity behind the pieces. We'll be out and about across the festival, and we hope to see you there too!
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