London Design Festival unveils “disco façade” installation for King’s Cross

The latest announcements also include a “multi-sensory” exhibition inspired by the sea at Oxo Tower Wharf.

disco-carbonara
A render for Disco Carbonara

For this year’s London Design Festival (LDF), Martino Gamper’s Disco Carbonara — a “playful” installation which mimics the exterior of a disco — will take over Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross.

The brightly-coloured façade, which features cladding from the Italian Alps, will provide a gateway to Coal Drops Yard.

The large-scale structure is inspired by the concept of a Potemkin village.

The term originates from stories of a fake portable village that Grigory Potemkin built for his lover Empress Catherine II on her journey to Crimea in the late 18th century.

All the materials used to construct Disco Carbonara are made from waste products, which have been recycled or repurposed as a nod to sustainability.

Coal-Drops-Yard
The Idiosincratico exhibition space at Coal Drops Yard

The Italian designer, who is based in London, is also the subject of a new exhibition series at the festival. Curated by designer Jane Withers, Idiosincratico features three sections.

Hookalotti is based around a single object, the wall hook, which Gamper “riffs” in an effort to highlight the “expressive possibilities of a simple everyday object”.

idiosincratico
Gamper’s Idiosincratico exhibition

With Metamorfosi, Gamper celebrates the 60th anniversary of Italian furniture company Moroso by cutting and splicing their designs to create a “mash-up”, the festival says.

The third project is the Arnold Circus Stool, which is a stool Gamper originally designed in 2006 as part of the regeneration project for Shoreditch’s Boundary Estate.

Boundary Estate was one of London’s first housing projects, with Arnold Circus at its centre.

The new stool is a pistachio green, and all proceeds will go to the charity for the housing project.

take-the-plunge
A render for Take the Plunge

At the Oxo Tower Wharf, design studio Volume Creative has set up Take the Plunge, a “playful installation” which is inspired “by a love of the sea”, according to the festival.

Though exact details are still unclear, visitors are invited to “dive into a new experience” which promises “to capture the joyful elements of an oceanic journey” through “multi-sensory techniques”.

The festival has also announced the keynote speakers for its Global Design Forum, which includes the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood who is discussing the importance of activism in designing a sustainable future.

Claire Bergkamp, worldwide director of sustainability and innovation at Stella McCartney and Astrid Stavro, graphic designer and partner at Pentagram, are also speaking.

The festival runs from 14-22 September. More information about the installations can be found here and here.

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