Designboom reports that the plans for London Design Festival reveal how the city will be transformed through a series of installations. The festival will run from September 19-27 and will be composed of over 350 events to be held within the capital.
Among the designers who have committed to creating installations are British architect David Adjaye, Austrian designer Mischler Taxler, British Alex Chinneck, Irish design team Grafton Architects, London-based designers Laetitia de Allegri and Matteo Fogale and Mexican architect Frida Escobedo. The announcement was made in a conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum last May 13, 2015.
In a report by Digital Arts Online, one of the major highlights during the UK capital this September will be Alex Chinneck’s upside-down, 35-meter high, leaning replica of an electric pylon called “A Bullet from a Shooting Star.” According to the article, the installation will be much more incredible in terms of scale compared to Barber & Ogesby’s “Double Space” which headlined the 2014 design festival.
According to Designboom, the sculpture references the industrial history of the Greenwich peninsula. The latticed structure made of steel will be installed adjacent to an access road and leans at an angle reminiscent to how a part of a star is shot through the earth’s surface. The installation will be illuminated and will be visible from local stations, aeroplanes going to London’s city airport and from the Thames boat services.
Another venue will be Somerset House, which will become a part of the festival for the first time. David Adjaye will work on a commissioned installation for MINI. Other sculptural works will be located inside the V&A museum including the collaboration of Mischler Traxler and Perriet-Jouet named “Curiosity Cloud.” It will be composed of tiny imitation bugs “trapped” inside 250-mouth blown glass globes. These replica insect will tap and buzz based on human proximity.
Grafton Architects will be working on V&A’s Tapestry Gallery with a three-meter-tall installation that takes its inspirations from the tapestry’s needlepoint and the linearity of the Ogham, an ancient Irish alphabet.
V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries will host the venue for Fogale and De Allegri’s gridded landscape while Escobedo will be filling up the museum’s courtyard with reflective materials that will mirror the existing architecture. The Mexican architect’s installation is a part on UK’s year-long celebration of Mexican culture.
