This September, for the first time, each of London Design Festival’s districts will have its own unique sculptural centrepiece – a large-scale wooden waymarker to welcome visitors and capture its distinctive character and heritage.

Dubbed ‘Designposts’, the 10 monumental pieces will each be designed by students and recent graduates from one of two leading London creative institutions: London Metropolitan University and the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL. Each of the young designers will be working with wild-grown red oak – the most abundant species found in American hardwood forests, and therefore a highly sustainable material resource.

Developed in collaboration between London Design Festival and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and made by English furniture maker Benchmark, the Designposts project will not only introduce a thought-provoking new element to the festival, it will also serve to showcase the design potential of a relatively underused material, while providing a much-needed platform to the emerging generation of talent.
A platform for next-generation talent
Over the last 18 months, architecture and design students have had their education significantly disrupted by the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown. Access to workshops and making facilities has been limited by restrictions, and – with no fairs or end-of-year shows – opportunities to showcase their work have been all but eliminated.

Project mentors Peter Marigold, Professor of Design and Entrepreneurialism from London Metropolitan University, and Izaskun Chinchilla, Professor of Architectural Practice at Bartlett School of Architecture, have both collaborated with AHEC on creative projects in the past, and have a proven passion for timber as a material. They selected the 10 students and graduates, assigned them each an LDF district, and asked them to research and develop a concept that would capture its unique identity and idiosyncrasies.

Designers and their districts

Carrie Coningsby for Islington
Fioralba Elezi for Kings Cross
Daegyu Kim for Mayfair
Darta Shokrzadeh for Southwark South
Megan Makinson for Shoreditch
Aude Saint Joanis for Park Royal
Kate Woodcock for Clerkenwell
Faye Greenwood for William Morris Design Line
Jason Brooker for Design District at Greenwich Peninsula
Jonah Luswata for Brompton