5 Upcoming Events And Exhibits For Design Lovers

Feeling uninspired? Need your fix of innovative design? Whether you’re looking for artistically reimagined interiors, hand-crafted ceramics or a conference on creating sustainable designs for the future, here’s a round-up on the best design exhibits and events in London to mark in your calenders now.

The Best Upcoming Design Events And Exhibits

Not A House But A Memory – Gallery Rosenfeld

Inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s ‘The Poetics of Space’, Not A House But A Memory explores how domestic space holds memory, identity and emotional inheritance. In his book Bachelard writes: ‘The house protects the dreamer. The house allows one to dream in peace.’ Rather than representing the house as a fixed and stable place, this exhibition presents it as open and fluid, filled with feelings of care, absence and remembrance. This group exhibition celebrates the emerging voices of nine artists from across Europe with each using physical materials to evoke memory and personal experience, reflecting on the histories that shape how we live and feel at home. The nine artists on display include: Rebekka Hommann, Anna Pakosz, Lanfranco Quadrio, Sam Llewellyn-Jones, Araminta Blue, Bongsu Park, Maya Silverberg, Martina Cinotti, and Li Ramet. 

When: 6 Aug – 12 Sep

How to visit: galleryrosenfeld.com

Surfacing by Heather Gibson – County Hall Pottery

This new solo exhibition by ceramic artist Heather Gibson explores how ‘clay opens portals to unseen territories’, digging into how the ground is used as both surface and vessel and interrogating how ceramics present the past not as fixed but in constant shift. ‘My work is an assemblage of time,’ Gibson explains. ‘Through layering slips, glazes, and marks, I build up multi-dimensional surfaces. My method embraces the unpredictability of materials – allowing the clay to give something back, something beyond our control.’ Developed during her year-long residency at County Hall Pottery, the exhibit features a collection of hand-built, gas-reduced ceramic stoneware, including large sculptural pieces, vessels and wall-based works. 

When: 12 Aug – 7 Sep

How to visit: countyhallpottery.com

World Design Congress 2025 – Barbican Centre

MycoWorks x Mycelium Muse All Objects – Felix Speller

The World Design Congress is returning to London this September for a weekend long event at the Barbican Centre. With the title ‘Design For Planet 2025’ this year’s congress is focused on exploring how we can design a regenerative future for all. Hosted by the Design Council, the theme explores cutting-edge solutions to the climate crisis across the design spectrum. With a mix of keynotes, discussions, book launches and workshops, the event will highlight topics such as designing resilient futures, designing ethical and green AI, and sharing stories of hope and possibility. Speakers at this year’s conference include design leaders such as architect Norman Foster, Earthshot Prize Winner Charlot Magayi, architectural designer Thomas Heatherwick, musician Brian Eno, fashion designer Priya Ahluwalia, architect Mariam Issoufou, industrial designer Tom Dixon, spatial designer Michael Bennett, and Faber Futures founder Natsai Audrey Chieza. 

When: 9 – 10 September 

How to visit: worlddesigncongresslondon.com

The Objects We Live By from Emma Louise Payne – London Design Festival

As part of the London Design Festival 2025, artist and ceramicist Emma Louise Payne is opening the doors of her five-storey London atelier, Seventy-Six, to unveil an immersive exhibition which explores how design shapes our everyday lives. Located just moments from Hyde Park, each room of Seventy-Six will play host to new works by one of nine designers and makers. With no plinths, no spotlights, and no traditional display mechanisms, the objects are placed as they might be found in a lived-in space: a textile draped over a chair, a vessel on a kitchen shelf, a light catching the morning sun. The exhibit invites visitors to experience each object in its natural context and to consider how our lives are subtly shaped by the pieces we choose to live alongside.

‘This exhibition is not about showcasing objects as isolated artefacts, but about understanding how they settle into our lives and surroundings – how they become part of our daily rituals and spatial rhythms,’ says Emma Louise Payne. ‘It’s about asking what design means when it is lived with, not just looked at.’

When: 13 – 21 Sep

How to visit: londondesignfestival.com

The Magpie’s Nest – PAD London 

Described as ‘a tribute to curiosity, collecting and curating’, this new exhibit from artist and designer Faye Toogood explores the objects we hold onto, whether it’s a conker burnished by years of pocket polishing or a faded novelty keyring. Following in the footsteps of her bird-watching father, rather than hoarding toys as a child she amassed a collection of sticks and pebbles from her rambles through nature. She explains how ‘the ritual of collecting and obsessing over natural objects, rearranging and trying to make sense of the world through them’ has had an enduring influence on her work. Toogood’s exhibit includes foraged sticks, stones and broken bones among a curated collection of works by designers such as Misha Kahn, Andrea Branziand Fernandi and Humberto Campana which explore their different responses to the natural world. The collection is exhibited in Toogood’s new workshop which includes a hand-carved oak wall relief and five wool tapestries woven from still life artworks which celebrate her personal cabinet of curiosities and the tools in her studio. 

When: 14 – 19 Oct, 2025

How to visit: friedmanbenda.com