London Design Festival 2016: Highlights and a Notable Flop

The London Design Festival 2016 featured numerous installations and exhibitions across the city. Asif Khan presented MINI LIVING 'Forests' in Shoreditch, exploring contemporary living with green oases. Benjamin Hubert's FOIL used 50,000 Braun blades at the V&A's Tapestry Gallery. The Soane Museum launched 'Below Stairs' with designers Barber & Osgerby, Jasper Morrison, Martino Gamper, and Paul Cocksedge. UniversalAssemblyUnit created 'Light Pollination' with 20,000 LEDs. Martino Gamper led 'No Ordinary Love' at SEE••DS, producing a collective clay collection. Dechem Studio and OKOLO, with the Czech Centre London, presented 'BREATHLESS: the essence of glass' featuring glass artists Marek Bartko and Marek Effmert. 'Furniture is not working 2.0' showcased open-source, waste-free prototypes by James Shaw, Adam Blencowe, Thor ter Kulve, and Paula Arntzen, guided by Ineke Hans. Raw Color had a solo show at the Aram Gallery. Alison Brooks Architects' 'The Smile' with Arup was a popular landmark. The inaugural London Design Biennale explored Utopia. The Visionary Crazy Golf project, intended as a symbol with holes by Paul Smith, Tom Dixon, and Zaha Hadid, failed to secure Kickstarter funding and was not realized.