London Design Festival 2013 -

Visualisation of Endless Stair at Tate Modern, Image Copyrights © Cityscape

The London Design Festival is an annual event, held to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world, and as the gateway to the international creative community. The 11th edition of the London Design Festival will be will be held for a duration of 10 days from 14th to 22nd September 2013 with over 300 events and exhibitions showcasing the best of global design. The Festival is funded through a combination of public and private sources. The Mayor Of London’s office provides grant funding for the Festival; Arts Council England have been long term supporters of the Festival. Private funding (approx 60%) is raised through sponsorship of Festival projects alongside a small range of London Design Festival products and services delivered throughout the year.

London Design Festival is an umbrella for a number of high-profile design festivals taking place in London during the same period. Some of the well known festivals are 100% Design at Earls Court from 18th to 21st September 2013, FOCUS/13 at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour from 22nd to 25th September 2013 and Design Junction at The Old Sorting Office from 18th to 22nd September 2013.

Image Copyrights © Design Junction

Concept/Art Direction/Design: Form
Photography/styling: Sara Morris/Sandy Suffield

One of the highlights of the 2013 London Design Festival is the Landmark Projects which involves some of the world’s greatest architects and designers to create pieces of work in some of London’s best-loved public spaces. After the success of 2012’s Prism by Keiichi Matsuda, this year architect Alex de Rijke, Co-Founder of dRMM Architects and Dean of Architecture at the Royal College of Art in collaboration with engineers at Arup has designed an installation called ‘Endless Stair’ which will be installed outside Tate Modern from 13th September – 10th October 2013. The towering structure will invite visitors to climb and explore a series of 15 Escher-like interlocking staircases made from a prefabricated construction using 44 cubic metres of American tulipwood donated by AHEC members. As a viewpoint, Endless Stair provides breath-taking views along the River Thames. While the installation will be open to public during the day, the structure will be closed overnight but illuminated for public viewing with a scheme designed by London-based design practice Seam Design using equipment by Lumenpulse.