Material Matters 2024: Collaborations, Partnerships and Features

Material Matters returns to Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf as part of the London Design Festival 2024. The fair runs 18-21 September (Wednesday to Saturday), bringing together world-leading brands, designers, makers, and innovators to investigate and celebrate the importance of materials, and their ability to shape our lives.

The fair is free to attend for trade visitors. Pre-registration is essential: materialmatters.design/visit

Arper, Catifa. Photograph by Salva Lopez

Here are just a few of the collaborations, partnerships and features visitors can see and experience across the four days.

Room 12: Exploring supply and demand

Leading architecture and design practice TP Bennett has joined forces with industry pioneer The Furniture Practice for a curated journey investigating the ever-evolving relationship between raw materials, geography, people and supply chains. Room 12 will explore the details behind products manufactured by twelve brands operating in the commercial interior industry, exploring the components, materials or products, how they’re crafted and assembled and the work carried out to make them, by both humans and nature.

Bit Collection. Normann Copenhagen

Room 12 contains the show bar – produced with Smile Plastics – and a ‘storytelling space’, which will host events and workshops throughout the fair. Exhibiting brands to look out for include Camira and SAS, Modus, Arper, Fredericia, Normann Copenhagen, and Humanscale.

SURU. Photograph by Sergi Peguera, Manel Cano, Oriol Puchol and Paula Ibañez

There are also UK debuts for Barcelona-based Suru and Australian company REDDIE alongside Cornwall-based manufacturer MARK Products.

Material Matters co-founder William Knight says:

‘Collaborating with the sustainability team at TP Bennett and The Furniture Practice has been a fascinating process.  One of the things we try and do in the fair is show how new material thinking is making its way into mass-produced products and the relationship customer demand has on driving change. Visitors will be able to see major brands leading the way when it comes to circularity and demonstrating the complexity underlying production, and how valuing what goes into them can promote more sustainable use. It’s a provocative and inspiring project to have at the heart of Material Matters.’

Locally Grown

And now for something completely different on Bargehouse’s second floor… Locally Grown is an interactive installation that invites visitors to explore their own hair as a potential new material. It comes from the fertile mind of Studio Sanne Visser, a material design research practice and a leading voice in the development of human hair as a scalable regenerative material.

Studio Sanne Visser. SSV Rope

The installation offers the chance to experience the full journey from fibre to product. Essentially, visitors will be able to have a free haircut and then see the ‘waste’ hair spun and turned into rope. There will also be an exhibition of products, using hair yarn, cord and rope created in collaboration with a fistful of designers who possess a like-minded approach to regenerative design. The exhibition is supported by The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and co-curated by Vickie Hayward of Company, Place.

Designer of the Year

Each year, Material Matters throws the spotlight on a particular practice as design studio of the year. For 2024 PriestmanGoode follows in the footsteps of LAYER and PearsonLloyd. The London-based studio – and one of the world’s leading designers of transport interiors – believes ‘material choices in the design process not only define the experience of a journey across every touchpoint, but they also ensure that light-weight, circular and recycled requirements will meet net-zero targets’.

Get on Board Meal Tray. PriestmanGoode

PriestmanGoode’s installation, Moving Responsibly: A Material Journey, takes visitors on a trip (appropriately enough) across each phase of a design process, examining issues such as supplier collaborations. It demonstrates how design has the ultimate influence in defining future transport systems that are safe, responsible and sustainable. The installation – in Room 8 on the second floor of Bargehouse includes a materials table & VR experience.

Fibre Futures

Fibre Futures is a new exhibition from BIOTEXFUTURE, an innovation space funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research focused on bio-based textile research. The project is led by adidas AG and RWTH Aachen University. The installation reveals insights into cross-industry processes and material innovation in the field of high-performance textiles, featuring projects that aim to positively impact the textile value chain. Visitors can expect to discover diverse approaches to alternative resource streams, innovative spinning techniques, and cutting-edge bio-manufacturing techniques.

adidas. BIOTEXFUTURE ALGEATEX

The Wood Awards 

The Wood Awards is back at gallery@oxo for this year’s fair. The scheme, which was established in 1971, recognises, encourages and promotes outstanding wood design, craftsmanship and Installation. With 10 categories across Furniture & Objects and Buildings, the awards celebrate the vast diversity of timber excellence and innovation.

New Temple Complex, Wood Award Winner 2023. Photograph by Rory Gardiner

The exhibition displays all the furniture and objects from the 2024 shortlist, alongside presentations of the various buildings in contention for a prize. Together they promise to tell a powerful story of what can be achieved using timber in design and architecture.

Fredericia

Talks Space 

Material Matters is the destination for material intelligence. An essential experience at the fair is attending live events and discussions that bring together experts, practitioners and creative leaders. As the Official Acoustics partner for the fair, this year’s Talks Space on the top floor of Bargehouse will be designed and produced by Woven Image – the global supplier of sustainable, design-led acoustic finishes and textiles. Details of the talks programme will be released before the fair.

Material Matters co-founder, Grant Gibson, says:

‘We’re delighted by the breadth of the features and installations we have at this year’s fair. They range from the experimental – such as Studio Sanne Visser’s exploration of the possibilities of human hair as a material – to the mainstream. I’m intrigued by how global brands are using innovative materials and thinking about the importance of circularity in the TP Bennett/The Furniture Practice space. It’s shaping up to be a fascinating year.’