Discover Highlights from London Design Festival 2026
Now in its 24th edition, the program continues to expand with installations, museum exhibitions, collectible design showcases, showroom launches, and more
September marks the start of the design world’s calendar, with major fairs and exhibitions taking place across more than 10 countries. London Design Festival remains one of the largest city-wide festivals and is now in its 24th edition. The program continues to expand with installations, museum exhibitions, collectible design showcases, showroom launches, and, at the top of our list to see, the inaugural Shoreditch Design Week.
London Design Festival stretches across the sprawling city, with individual neighborhoods, or “design districts,” presenting their own collection of events, each with a dedicated opening day and late evening. Traditional craftsmanship threads through much of this year’s programing, with several exhibitions exploring how handicraft continues to shape contemporary design. Below are some of the highlights.
Béton Brut: The Masur Edition by Isokon
Béton Brut gallery is presenting The Masur Edition, a new collection by Isokon that reintroduces four of Marcel Breuer’s designs in masur birch veneer. Coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the modernist architect’s work for Isokon, the edition draws attention to a lesser-known aspect of his experiments with plywood: historical versions of the furniture were finished in a variety of timbers, including sycamore, zebrano, mahogany, and Australian walnut, and all were handmade at Isokon’s East London workshop.
September 12—20
Max Radford x Christopher Farr
As part of Shoreditch Design Week, gallerist and interior designer Max Radford has partnered with handmade rug purveyor Christopher Farr to present archival works alongside emerging artists and designers. Bringing together fine art, craft, and design, the collaboration explores a shared interest in materiality and contemporary approaches to form.
September 15—20
Gallery Fumi and Royal College of Art: “After School”
Gallery Fumi is partnering with the Royal College of Art for “After School,” offering its Mayfair gallery as a platform to showcase work by recent graduates and alumni from the prestigious institution. Rather than exploring a single theme, the show instead emphasizes novel processes and innovative approaches to material experimentation through the one-of-a-kind furnishings on display.
September 12—19
Slancha: “Hanging Baskets”
Young contemporary design gallery Slancha is presenting “Hanging Baskets,” a showcase of ten designers who reinterpret the familiar garden fixture through their own materials and processes, creating one-of-a-kind collectible works. The exhibition takes place at Awaykin, an East London fashion concept store with interiors by Max Radford.
September 14—20
Shoreditch Design Week
Shoreditch Design Week marks the evolution of the long-running Shoreditch Design Triangle into London Design Festival’s largest dedicated design district. Bringing together more than 60 events, the program includes exhibitions, installations, talks, tours, workshops, showroom activations, as well as three anchoring fairs (Material Matters, Design at Work, House of Icon, and ND Selects) all with a focus on spotlighting emerging designers and the exploration of new materials.
September 15—20
Studio Iron
As part of Brompton Design District in South Kensington, Studio Iron is presenting a group show centered on the relationship between experimentation and craftsmanship. The newly launched concept store and cultural platform has selected a wide-ranging group of exciting artists and designers, including Andu Masebo, Buchanan Studio, Completed Works, Kelly Wearstler x ARCA, Kouros Maghsoudi, Paul Coenen, Barnaby Lewis, Wretched Flowers, and more.
September 12—20
Abid Javed: “An Egg, A Vessel”
Ceramic sculptor and designer Abid Javed brings his background in molecular biology into his practice, creating collectible “molecular objects” in clay. His exhibition “An Egg, A Vessel” transforms the Clink Street Window Gallery at London Bridge into an egg-inspired display centered on ideas of new beginnings and material experimentation.
September 12–20
“Under Wraps” at Charles Burnand Gallery
Charles Burnand Gallery opens its new permanent Mayfair space at 20 Bruton Place during London Design Festival with “Under Wraps,” an exhibition that incorporates the act of unveiling into the presentation. The works are initially shown concealed beneath semi-translucent architectural sheeting before being revealed in sequence. Part of the Mayfair Design District, the exhibition brings together new and recent works by Niamh Barry, Peter Lane, Studio Furthermore, Kyeok Kim, Myungtaek Jung, and Marc Fish, spanning collectible design, sculpture, and illuminated works.
September 12—January 9, 2027
Alex Tieghi-Walker: “The Reading Room”
Also at 36 Thurloe Place, curator Alex Tieghi-Walker has mounted “The Reading Room,” a temporary space dedicated to queer design, creativity, and cultural history in London. Conceived as part library, part salon, and part exhibition, the project brings together furniture and objects by London-based queer artists and designers, including Nicolas Zanoni, Rich Aybar, Joe Sweeney, Tino Seubert, Zack Toppin, and Henry Svendson. Soho-based Tenderbooks will curate an accompanying library of publications spanning queer histories, art, design, architecture, and culture.
September 12—20