Material Matters

If you visited the Material Matters fair in September you won't have failed to notice the latest guest on the Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast: Zena Holloway, founder of Rootfull. Zena is a bio-designer who creates exquisite clothes, lights and sculptures from the roots of wheatgrass. These distinctive grown pieces attract a huge amount of attention, and there are fascinating stories about how they came into being. In this episode Grant and Zena talk about how she was inspired by her professional life as an underwater photographer, the early lessons exploring materials and the processes and experiments that led to beeswax providing the Eureka! moment. The discussion is at an interesting moment for Rootfull as collaborations start take to shape and scale, alongside explorations into the potential for the material to be used by industry. Zena also discusses her career as an underwater photographer and her experiences on extraordinary high-end fashion shoots working with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Tom Daley, Katie Price and numerous other celebrities. To listen, search for 'Material Matters with Grant Gibson' on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and our website here: https://lnkd.in/e7rmNM_z #materialmatters #materialmatterspodcast #designpodcast #design #podcast #MMPOD #MMWGG #materialintelligence #MM24 #MM2024 #materialmatters2024

Just a few more sleeps before this year's fair opens. Why not use the time listening to the latest Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast featuring the photo star of the recent feature in The Times on the fair: Alkesh Parmar. A designer and researcher, Alkesh has developed a fascination with citrus peel, in general – and orange peel, in particular. Using a material generally thought of as waste, he has created a variety of extraordinary products including a juicer (for obvious reasons) and a lampshade. His practice combines craft with critical design and he was a relatively early adopter in the design industry of working with local materials and questioning the effects of globalisation. Alkesh is exhibiting his latest work on the top floor of Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf next week. Register here to visit: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse In the podcast Grant and Alkesh talk about why he’s researching the history of oranges for this year's fair; the properties of peel and how it can behave like leather; sourcing his material of choice; the importance of failure to his practice; coming from a family of shoemakers; and his relationship with light. You can find it by searching for 'Material Matters with Grant Gibson' on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or listen via our website: https://lnkd.in/eg3jkx3z #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair #designpodcast #podcast #MaterialMattersWithGrantGibson

There is an array of exhibitors to explore at Material Matters next week but one NOT to be missed is For Everyday Life in Room 11 displaying their award-winning project 'Housing Salinas'. -- Free for trade / £15 for public - Material Matters 2024 fair takes place 18-21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Bankside as part of the London Design Festival. #Register to visit here: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse --- First presented at SXSW in March this year, Housing Salinas was one of the winners of an Initiative 99 award - a global architecture competition for affordable housing. The project incorporates 3D-printing technology by construction technology firm ICON and mortar-based concrete CarbonX. The project was designed in response to community displacement in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, it is the creation of a long-term solution that strives towards a future where residents can live, work, and flourish in an environment that embodies the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. Hear the Co-founder of ForEveryday.Life Colin Macgadie discuss the project in the context of the ongoing housing crisis at 1.30pm on Saturday 21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf (don't forget to register to visit the fair - all talks are free - see https://lnkd.in/eeK_si2D for full listing). #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair

Press coverage starting to flow in advance of #MM24 - great to score twice in the Dezeen must see list for London Design Festival 2024 https://lnkd.in/eqkDByzG

BOOM 💥 - The two Material Matters worlds collide: One of the stars of the forthcoming fair is a guest on the Podcast: Sanne Visser; material explorer, maker and researcher. Free for trade / £15 for public - The fair takes place 18-21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Bankside as part of the London Design Festival. #Register to visit here: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse - Sanne Visser, is a Dutch-born, London-based practitioner best known for a range of installations and products using human hair. Since graduating from the Material Futures MA course at Central Saint Martins, University of The Arts London she has exhibited worldwide and been nominated for several awards. At the fair her studio's installation 'Locally Grown' will invite people to explore their own hair as a new material. Visitors will able to have a free haircut and - if they stick around long enough - watch it being spun and turned into rope! Locally Grown is kindly supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom. It's well worth listening to the podcast before (and after) visiting the fair: She and Grant Gibson talk about her installation at the fair; how she became fascinated by hair in the first instance; the processes she puts the material through; its extraordinary properties; the ethics around ownership of designing with hair; creating new material systems; collaborating with makers, hairdressers and scientists; the products it’s possible to make with hair and the importance of teaching to her practice. https://lnkd.in/e6fHa6XH #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair #MaterialMattersWithGrantGibson #DesignPodcast #podcast #sannevisser #humanhair #freehaircut

Material and industrial process is the focus of second-floor presentations at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf for this year's Material Matters fair. Free for trade / £15 for public - The fair takes place 18-21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Bankside as part of the London Design Festival. #Register to visit here: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse -- Exhibitors include Norsk Hydro showcasing CIRCAL 100R - the world's first industrial-scale aluminium made entirely from recycled post-consumer scrap (one part of the material process pictured). FIBER FUTURES will also be here, revealing insights into cross-industry research and material innovation for high-performance textiles, and illustrating projects that aim to positively impact the textile value chain, including alternative resource streams, innovative spinning techniques, and bio-manufacturing. (Hear Franziska Seehausen talk about the #BIOTEXFUTURE project as part of our talks programme - 3pm, Friday 20 Sept) Alongside is a presentation called Nature’s Canvas from Corian® Design; an immersive experience that highlights the company’s new colour collection and its diverse range of nature-inspired designs in their extraordinary material. Meanwhile, our design studio of the Year, PriestmanGoode, will be exhibiting in Room 8. The studio’s installation, 'Moving Responsibly: A Material Journey' takes visitors on a trip across each phase of their design process, examining issues such as supplier collaborations. It demonstrates how design has the ultimate influence in defining future transport systems that are safe, responsible and sustainable. #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair

The latest series of the Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast continues with the brilliant artist Bharti Kher. Bharti has established herself as a major player on the international art scene, with sculptures responding to women’s place in society and the female body. She is fascinated with materials and found objects; having melted down bangles, used saris and ceramic figures, and cast people with plaster. Currently she has an exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, entitled Bharti Kher: Alchemies, which shows a range of pieces from 2000-2024. She is soon set to use bindis to create a monumental new outdoor commission at the Hayward Gallery at London’s Southbank Centre, which opens in September. (Just a few minutes walk from Material Matters at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, 18-21 September). In the episode, Bharti talks about using things she finds – from radiators to bangles; how objects have inherent narratives and why she ‘exhausts’ them. She also discusses growing up in the Suburbs of London, loving art from a young age, moving to New Delhi on the toss of a coin and being married to a fellow artist. It’s well worth a listen. You can find it by searching for Material Matters with Grant Gibson on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our website here: https://lnkd.in/eeNkY9Dy #MaterialMattersWithGrantGibson #MaterialMatters #DesignPodcast #podcast #BhartiKher #Sculpture #ArtPodcase

One of the most important resources design is responding to is 'waste'. There are some outstanding examples to see at the forthcoming Material Matters fair. Free for trade / £15 for public - The fair takes place 18-21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Bankside as part of the London Design Festival. Register to visit here: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse - At the entrance to the fair will be Tip Takes; an active research project investigating how creative value and reuse could improve the circularity of materials within the construction industry. The launch project for Studio Tip (Charlotte Kidger & Katie-May Boyd) is sponsored by leading structural and civil engineer, Elliott Wood not to be missed. At the other end of Bargehouse, SAGES London (pictured) demonstrates its commitment to disrupting the synthetic dyes industry by providing a natural, sustainable, non-polluting alternative: The company has launched its first range of colours derived from avocados, onions, blueberries, and red cabbage. While fellow top-floor exhibitors Filie Materials turns disused car windscreens into a leather alternative, HEREWEAR creates locally-produced circular materials made from bio-based agriwaste, wheat straw. #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair

Material Matters is happy to confirm that 55 exhibitors and partners will be at this year's fair. We're delighted with the lineup + the support and encouragement from our exhibitors. Thank you, Minus - powerful words. Free for trade / £15 for public - The fair takes place 18-21 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf on London's Bankside as part of the London Design Festival. Register to visit here: https://lnkd.in/g__APcse #MaterialMatters #MM24 #MaterialMatters24 #MaterialMattersFair

The Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast is back for its early autumn season, and the globally respected advocate for biophilic design Oliver Heath kickstarts the new series. Oliver is a designer, architect, author and broadcaster. Along with his team and the sustainable platform Planted Community, he currently has an exhibition at the Roca London Gallery in Chelsea Harbour, which focuses firmly on bio-design – illustrating what it is, why it’s important, and how it can be used in the spaces we inhabit. He has been a fixture on our TV screens since 1998, working for the likes of the BBC, ITV, Channel Four, the Discovery Channel and Norway’s TV2. He is a regular on DIY SOS and was, of course, one of the designers on the mould-breaking ’90s show, Changing Rooms. In this episode Oliver and Grant talk about his fascination with biophilia and how it affects his practice; its core principles and history; why sustainability is about more than counting carbon, his issues with clay, how wood affects the heart rate, getting famous on Changing Rooms; reinventing himself professionally… and the importance of soup. To listen search for Material Matters with Grant Gibson on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the Material Matters website: https://lnkd.in/eyxkbsrs #MaterialMattersWithGrantGibson #MaterialMatters #DesignPodcast #podcast #biophilia #DesignWithNature #OliverHeath