design Junction

London Design Festival 2012

It's that time of year again..... London Design Festival. As I didn't get the chance to see anything last year because I was exhibiting therefore I've made an extra effort to try and get to at least the bigger shows.

Design Junction was impressive spreading over three floors I particularly liked Benjamin Hubert on the 2nd floor. A design studio based in London the stand looked great and their use of materials was also really interesting. The stand was also curated in such a way raw materials were showcased next to or along side the finished object.




The Joy of living Max Fraser's project immediately caught my attention. The Joy of Living is raising money for the Maggie's Centre's a great source of interest to many people. Cancer is something that touches many of us in one way or another and building awareness around the existence of not only the Maggie's Centre's but also the fantastic work they do every day deserves to be recognised and opened up to more people.




Continuing over at 100% Design the Maggie's Centre makes another appearance I managed to catch a presentation OMA presents New Court, Maggies - A story of programs Materials and Scale by Ellen van Loon 

Ellen was talking about the design processes involved for the build of the Maggie's centre in Glasgow. It was insightful to hear how certain decisions were made and why. 

The reason the Maggie's centres are prominent within the world of design is every centre is designed by a different architect. Big names within design and architecture are involved such as Steven Holl designing St Barts London , Paul Smith designed the interiors for Maggie's Nottingham, Zahah Hadid designed Maggie's Fife, Frank Gahry Maggie's Dundee and sculpture by Anthony Gormley.

Not only are these spaces providing an invaluable resource for cancer suffers and their families to visit for a number of different reasons.

 These buildings are considered and designed with sensitivity for the user carefully  designed to provide everyone with a welcoming calming and homely atmosphere resulting in a place that sits apart from the main hospital.

There is a great book called: The Architecture of hope: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres
Edwin Heathcote (being sold at Design Junction and Amazon)

Finally I zipped over to the Southbank Centre to see the Designersblock show as I wanted to catch up with Central Saint Martins MA graduates to say hello and see their work which of course looked great.



Bo Young Parks Silver jewellery