Material Matters

SOME QUITE BIG NEWS! Material Matters has a new home for 2025: Space House London Returning to London Design Festival 2025 from 17-20 September and, what’s more, it has a sparkling new home. The fair is taking a floor of the entire building, one of the city’s most distinctive modernist buildings. Located on a one-acre site, its circular tower and block – designed by Seifert & Partners in the 1960s and once home to the Civil Aviation Authority – is Grade II listed and has recently undergone a restoration and modernisation programme led by architect, Squire & Partners and developer Seaforth. Space House is hyper-connected with multiple underground and railway stations – including Covent Garden and Holborn – within easy walking distance. So it’s all very exciting. However, it’s also important to point out that while our building might have changed, the ethos of the fair remains the same. We want to showcase the importance of material intelligence in architecture and design and illustrate how using the stuff that surrounds us more wisely could make the world a slightly better place.Want to take part? DM us or, better still, get in touch via our website: https://lnkd.in/e3Ff3kAC Photos by the ever-brilliant Gareth Gardner.

Material Matters is delighted to be hosting a panel discussion on Norway's design and manufacturing deep connection to nature and commitment to longevity on 12 March. Chaired by Grant Gibson as part of the London Design Week programme at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, the session will look at the sensibility and sustainability of Norwegian products and materials with leading brands Northern.no, Lundhs , Eikund, Jensen Beds and Norvigroup Norsk Dun AS Devised as an opportunity for interior designers to get under the skin of what makes Norway's high-quality design output so special, guests will also be able to take in a showcase installation by Amy Hunting and Oscar Magnus Narud involving all participating brands. 4.30pm, Weds 12 March Jensen Beds Showroom Design Centre Chelsea Harbour To reserve your spot, RSVP using this link: https://lnkd.in/eHyC-Kzf #MaterialMatters #MaterialIntelligence #NorwegianDesign #LondonDesignWeek2025 #LDW25atDCCH

A new venture for Material Matters: launching at the Surface Design Show: a pop-up bookshop with a carefully selected range of 16 titles exploring the potential of material intelligence. The bookshop will sell a clutch of materially-based titles aimed at the architecture and design community, many of which have been featured on the Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast. ‘I spend a lot of time on the podcast talking to architects, designers, material scientists and journalists about books they have just published,’ says Grant. ‘So it makes sense to sell the books we have been talking about in such detail.' The stand at SDS has been designed by and presented in partnership with NOVAVITA DESIGN and will feature samples of their new, playful and sustainable materials created from waste products. Supported by Arper UK, to ensure a beautiful & comfortable place to enjoy reading books, discussing materials and learning more about our plans for 2025 - in London and Copenhagen. Visit us at Stand 528, Gallery Level: SDS runs 4-6 February at the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington and hosts over 180 exhibitors. Free for trade, register here: https://lnkd.in/euyWCduh #materialmatters #mm25 #PopUpBookshop #surfacedesignshow #sds #novavitadesign #tradeshow #bdc #materialintelligence

NEWS from Material Matters: New fair launched as part of 3daysofdesign 2025. Material Matters Copenhagen will take place 18-20 June within the extraordinary Gammel Dok building, in the heart of the city’s Christianshavn district (pictured). The canal-side building, highly visible from the city centre, has views across the skyline of Copenhagen. It will be an essential destination for 3daysofdesign that echos the area’s history of trade and craft with a focus on materials, techniques and making. Boasting two floors of dedicated exhibition space, the venue – once the home to the Danish Architecture Foundation – is a 5-10 minute walk from the ferry, metro, or bus, and sits along easy bikeways from Nyhavn and the Christianshavn Canal. The fair will present 10+ brands, each with a distinct material story to illustrate the importance of material intelligence and how it will play a role in shaping our lives over the coming decades. Importantly, there are a variety of spaces to suit a range of budgets. ‘We are so excited to be launching this sparkling new event at one of our favourite design festivals, in a city we enjoy and in a wonderful venue,’ say Material Matters co-founders Grant Gibson and William Knight. ‘The London fair has been running successfully for three years now and it feels the right time to talk to a new audience. We co-hosted a conference during 3daysofdesign at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2023 which proved to be hugely popular, so we know there’s an audience keen to learn more about materials. It seems to be the perfect fit for us.’ Get in touch if you'd like to be part of Material Matters Copenhagen via hello@materialmatters.design Material Matters London will take place as part of the London Design Festival 17-20 September. #materialmatters #3daysofdesign #copenhagen #materialintelligence #design #architecture #materials #designfair

An excellent choice by Samuel Wilkinson for Design Week's best design of the year: The Cafita Chair by Arper, reissued with sublime material intelligence. Featured as part of 'In the Making' at Material Matters 2024 in partnership with tp bennett and The Furniture Practice. #materialmatters #materialintelligence #arper #designsoftheyear

Huge congratulations to Jasleen Kaur: Winner of this year's Turner Prize. She was a guest on the Material Matters with Grant Gibson podcast 2021, and it's well worth a(nother) listen... https://lnkd.in/gm4W_paH The episode covers a wide variety of subjects, including baking bread with mothers and children in a London Sure Start Centre, why the kitchen is a ‘site of resistance’; the part food played in her Sikh family and growing up in Glasgow. She also discussed digging into history, feeling on the periphery, making bad jewellery and how her work has become more political over the years. It’s a hugely personal, and frequently rather beautiful conversation. The Turner Prize show is on at Tate Britain until 16 February. #materialmatters #podcast #jasleenkaur #turnerprize #artist #designer #materialmatterswithgrantgibson

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