Design Event Highlight: Grant Gibson Delves into His Acclaimed Design Fair, Set to Debut at LDF 2025
The Material Matters fair, a celebration of innovative and sustainable materials, is set to return to London Design Festival (LDF) in 2025. After a successful debut in 2020 at Bargehouse, the fair will now be held at Space House, a 1960s building designed by Richard Seifert.
The decision to move to Space House was made to accommodate the fair's growth since its launch in 2022. The restored modernist landmark offers a dedicated and sizable space, enhancing the experience with exhibitions like "In The Making 2.0".
Material Matters 2025, scheduled for 17-21 September, will feature a variety of exhibitors. These include 'In the Making', The Wood Awards, The Only Natural Design Competition, Hydro, 3M, MycoWorks, and numerous smaller designers and makers working with waste or pine resin.
The fair has been a platform for showcasing trends in materials, with one of the notable trends being the use of biomaterials like hemp. Another trend is the use of waste materials in innovative ways, such as Filie Materials, a leather alternative made from broken car windscreen plastic film.
The fair's founder and podcast host, Grant Gibson, started Material Matters as a design podcast in 2019. Initially, the podcast featured interviews with industry luminaries like Bill Amberg, Edmund de Waal, and Celia Pym. Gibson spent a year going to people's studios before Covid hit, and during this time, he realized he could talk to designers, artists, makers, architects, scientists from across the globe via Zoom.
The podcast gained popularity and caused a bit of a ripple, indicating an audience for the topic. Recording six episodes with no great expectations, Gibson focused on materials for the podcast to have a thread that ran through the interviews. The conversations around materials have become more mainstream, with major companies like TP Bennett and The Furniture Practice looking at materials as a way to mitigate their impact on the environment.
In 2020, the first Material Matters fair was held at Bargehouse and proved to be successful. The fair in 2025 will take place at Space House, 1 Kemble St (Kingsway), London WC2B 4AN, marking another significant step in the fair's journey.
Gibson, who realized the podcast he created had become a brand, decided to expand it with business partner William Knight, previously the deputy director of the London Design Festival and a director of 100% Design. Together, they aim to continue pushing the boundaries of materials and sustainability.
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