At this year’s London Design Festival (LDF), all eyes are on Brompton Design District thanks to guest curator Alex Tieghi-Walker, from influential New York gallery Tiwa Select.
Straddling the line between art, craft and design, the British-born gallerist has pulled together a slew of the city’s coolest creatives in his program, A Softer World, focusing on design that “feels, connects and softens the world around us”. This draws on the wider trend for “soft design” that’s sweeping everything from homewares (think curved furniture and plush fabrics) to web layouts (soothing colours and frictionless UX).
“Design has traditionally been very masculine, very loud, very brash,” Tieghi-Walker tells Broadsheet. “With my gallery I look at the poetic, the nostalgic, the spiritual. It’s the opposite of the big white, bright boxes with overhead lighting we’re used to experiencing design in.”
Tieghi-Walker’s curation is intended as an antidote to our “insane”, conflict-ridden times, with human-centric happenings and exhibits to be experienced in person.
As part of the program, US designer and sometime Solange Knowles collaborator Tione Trice has teamed up with photographer, designer and former gallerist Ronan Mckenzie to curate Mirroring Dialogue, an exhibition at 36 Thurloe Place featuring artworks and textiles by artists from the African diaspora. Just next door, south London designer Charlotte Taylor will feature 30 female makers in a bedroom installation exploring domesticity and subverting the idea of interiors as passive backdrops.
At the Royal College of Art, furniture, textiles and objects reflecting on design as an act of care, connection and renewal will be on display in a student showcase, Tender Revolution.
Floral waymarkers by School of Sustainable Floristry founder Cissy Bullock, who focuses on local, sustainable and craft-inspired floristry, will unify venues throughout the district.
Another must-see is Landscape, Silence and Night at the Brompton Cemetery Chapel, open as part of LDF for the first time. The dance will be devised during the festival by the chapel’s artists-in-residence, Sonnie Carlebach and Ushara Dilrukshan, alongside 12 performers, with open rehearsals culminating in a performance on September 20.
“I wanted to bring together people who I knew would create ephemeral experiences where you really have to be in the room,” Tieghi-Walker says. “The design principles will linger in people’s imaginations, but the experience of seeing the design should feel very human, tying in to this idea of softness, grounding and calming.”
If you want to create a softer world in your own home, here are a few design pieces that reflect Tieghi-Walker’s vision and sensibility.
Rolling incense burner, Andu Masebo (£450)
“We’re bombarded with relentlessly ‘on’, nonstop digital information. I want design to tap into the ephemeral,” says Tieghi Walker. This gently rolling incense burner by Brompton Design District exhibitor Andu Masebo is a sculptural object in its own right, but will also encourage you to take a moment for a sensory experience.
andumasebo.com
Shiga Oribe espresso cup, Troy Town (£50)
“I’m really interested in the question of when something goes from being a crafted object to being seen as officially a designed object,” Tieghi Walker says. These ceramic espresso mugs are as collectable as they are usable, with their needle-ash glaze and individual markings.
troy-town-shop.myshopify.com
Toio LED floor lamp, designed by Achille Castiglioni for Flos, Aram (from £1128)
“Achilles Castiglioni based every single one of his designs on crafted objects like milking stools or bicycle seats, or very humble domestic objects. A lot of the curators who are taking part in the program see the domestic environment as the launch pad for design in a bigger sense,” says Tieghi-Walker, who believes lighting is extremely important in creating a “soft” atmosphere.
aram.co.uk
Abbeyhorn porridge spoon, David Mellor (£18)
These spoons are hand-shaped at one of the last British horn works in the Lake District, which has been operating for more than 200 years. “Very crafted, traditional objects whose design standards haven’t changed for such a long time can still be so efficient,” Tieghi-Walker says.
davidmellordesign.com
Intervals rug, Beni (US$561)
“For the festival I wanted everything to have a feeling of handmade-ness,” says Tieghi-Walker, who is currently working on a collaboration with Beni rugs. The irregular stripes in this piece, which was handwoven in Morocco, continues the artisanal theme.
benirugs.com
The London Design Festival runs September 13–21. londondesignfestival.com
