Opening day from London Design Festival 2024

The Dezeen team is reporting live from London Design Festival, which takes place 14-22 September. Read on for all the coverage from the preview day – 13 September.

5:00pm – lightweight luxury

As the day draws to a close, Tom Ravenscroft got his hands on the world's lightest glass whiskey bottle.

Created by drinks company Diageo for its Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra whisky, the bottle weighs 180 grams – less than an iPhone. By reducing the amount of glass in the bottle, the brand also reduced the amount of carbon used.

"We thought, what if our luxury products, instead of being in the heaviest glass, they were in the lightest and they celebrated beauty and delicacy?" Diageo global design director Jeremy Lindley told Dezeen.

According to Lindley the company worked with glassblowers and took a "test-and-learn" approach to develop the bottle's final form.

To mark the launch, art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast created an installation from the failed glass bottle prototypes that were hung from ceiling at the Old Selfridges Hotel in Mayfair.

Named Liquid Light, the installation was designed to symbolise the evolution of the bottle's form over time.

4:00pm – tea for two

Quick break at Fortnum and Masons for high tea.The Dezeen team can highly recommend!

3:30pm – window shopping

An array of sculptures made from materials such as bronze, wood, terracotta and glass by Jaime Hayon line the windows of Fortnum and Mason.

Passers-by can admire the items through glass windows that have been playfully decorated with hand-painted details by Hayon. Unfortunately none of the items are for sale.

2:30pm – Porcelain cigarettes and pigs

Design stalwart The Conran Shop has opened its doors to a new generation of designers with its LDF exhibition New Perspective, which showcases works by emerging artists.

Among the pieces on show were artist Alma Berrow's playful porcelain cigarette butts and a stoneware piggy bank by ceramicist Jade Delmage, as well as striking furniture by designer Maxiliam Kusuma, among others.

The designers took over spaces across the whole store, adding some unexpected new designs to The Conran Shop's design classics.

Curator Stella Smith, of art platform Izena, said she wanted to explore the relationship between art and design with the exhibition.

"I wanted to focus on material, process and form because I believe that although art and design are different spheres, they come from a similar ontological process," Smith told Dezeen.

The exhibition will remain after the close of London Design Festival, staying open until 29 September.

2:00pm – finally some sun!

Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel has created a glowing installation composed of solar-powered panels in a darkened room at Somerset House, which Starr Charles took a look at.

The lights pulse in shades of purple, orange, yellow and red and were set to an atmospheric sound track. When touched, a pedestal at the centre of the room changed the lights to give visitors their "own personal sunrise".

1:30pm – multi-brand showroom

In a modernist 1960s office building right next to Clerkenwell's medieval St John's Gate, design group MillerKnoll has launched its first major multi-brand showroom outside of the US.

Opening its doors for the first time as part of LDF, the complex includes dedicated showrooms and retail stores for American mid-century heritage brands Herman Miller and Knoll, which joined forces in 2021, as well as textile brand Maharam.

"Although we're different business units, technically, we see this space as one big space with a dedicated focus on each, where we coexist," MillerKnoll's senior vice president of global stores Kurt Kleespies told journalists on a tour of the space.

Spread across three floors, the complex includes Knoll's first international retail store, where Willo Perron's new Pillo sofa rubs shoulders with a reissue of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's 1929 Tugendhat Chair, which hasn't been in production since the 70s.

"It's an exciting time for Knoll under new ownership because in the last year and in the next four, we will have more new Knoll showrooms than in the past 20 years," explained the company's senior vice president of design Jonathan Olivares.

12:30om – "I'm actually blown away by it"

Dezeen editor Tom Ravenscroft has headed to Chelsea where industrial design studio Diez Office and urban greening specialists OMCºC have created the Vert pavilion.

Set in a square alongside Tate Britain, where Alison Brook's Smile pavilion was previously located, the structure was built from red-oak glulam supplied by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC).

The timber structure was created to support biodegradable nets for climbing plants with around 20 species  creating a shaded space for netted seating.

One person who enjoyed the pavilion was Diez Office founder Stefan Diez, who saw the completed project for the first time today.

[The pavilion] adds layer of cleverness, politeness and planting without disturbing the ground level," he said.

"I saw it the first time this morning and I'm actually blown away by it."

11:25am – tech vs craft

Six designers have created works that combine technology with Japanese crafts at the Craft x Tech showcase.

Starr Charles' highlights include a pair of glossy lacquerware tables by Kawatsura Shikki and Sabine Marcelis and an egg-shaped sculpture that emits an audio determined by the viewer's movements created by Tsugaru Nuri and Ini Archibong.

The interactive sculpture claims the prize for the most playful installation so far!

10:45am – performance table

Giles Tettey Nartey's Communion table, which was previously displayed at Milan design week, is making an appearance at this year's LDF.

The table explores "daily practices and rituals as something to be celebrated," Tettey Nartey explained to Starr Charles. A live performance using the table, which can be seen in this video, will take place at 7:45pm tonight.

10:30am – horse like?

Starr Charles spotted a pair of modular seats made from recycled leather designed by studio Modular by Mensah, which is led by Kusheda Mensah, in the halls of the V&A.

The "horse-like structures" that are intended for use in social spaces within the public realm, were showcased atop a plinth composed of bricks made using ash from leather waste.

10:00am – "Peaceful structures for protest"

As in previous years the V&A is hosting numerous installations during LDF, including Barricade and Beacon – an installation of protest architecture created by Studio Bark.

The installation, which Tom Ravenscroft saw as part of the preview tour, is made up of structures designed by the studio for protest group Extinction Rebellion and includes, as the name suggests, a barricade and a beacon.

It includes the modular boxes made by the studio to create barricades out of as well as the tensile protest towers.

"These structures are optimistic, said Studio Bark founder Wilf Meynell.

"When faced with issues of our time we are able to rise above it with ingenuity and optimism."

9:25am – pink, pink, pink

Last night editorial intern Douglas Jardim took a trip to the not-so-sunny Strand, to take a sneak peak at Barbie's contribution to LDF.

Studiomama's Nina Tolstrup installed three pavilion structures informed by the California resort town and Barbie DreamHouses, through a collaboration with Mattel and Visit Greater Palm Springs.

Some may put forward a strong case for pink fatigue, but with pedestrians flocking to peer through doll vignettes one could argue we have reached peak Barbiemania even in 2024. More information on Dezeen soon.

9:00am – hello London!

Dezeen's editor Tom Ravenscroft, editor-at-large Amy Frearson, deputy editor Cajsa Carlson, design editor Jennifer Hahn, editorial assistant Starr Charles and social editor Clara Finnigan are on the ground in London reporting from London Design Festival (LDF).

Dezeen Events Guide has created an LDF guide, highlighting the key events at the festival this year.

As the 2024 event gets under way, take a look at the 10 must-see installations and exhibitions at this year's festival including shows by Faye Toogood, Mitre & Mondays, Stefan Diez and ASUS Zenbook in partnership with Dezeen.

To stay up to date, follow Dezeen live: London Design Festival, taking place from 14-22 September 2024. Dezeen Events Guide has created a LDF guide, highlighting the key events at the festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.

All times are London time.

The lead image is by Tom Ravenscroft.

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