London Design Biennale 2016

Eclectic exhibition at Somerset House bringing together design work from 37 countries exploring the theme of Utopia with each country having its own display.

There was lots to see in this show and in coming to write it up I realised I missed a section downstairs on the Embankment entrance so may have to try to pop back this week. My main criticism would be that ‘design’ seemed to be a very broad term. In some cases it seemed to have more to do with installation art or just getting ideas across than actually designing anything tangible.

Highlights included the Japanese room overseen by a big inflated man floating above you and surrounded by beautiful objects by Yasuhiro Suzuki  such as a marble book with flowing water projected onto it, tiny floating compasses in the shape of Britain and Japan and rotating picture of people with eyes open and blinking.

I also liked the Israeli room which showcased aid distribution pods based on a sycamore seed which could each hold 3kg of supplies and be dropped in disaster areas. Needless to say the Swedish room just had beautiful things in it in particular some wonderful chunky coloured glass.

The Spanish room included a wonderful tunnel made of string giving a kaleidoscope type effect. I loved the, I think it was Turkish room, where you wrote a wish on a piece of paper which you put into an elaborate tube like those which used to be used in shops to deliver change and it was propelled around the West Wing of Somerset House.

Closes on 27 September 2016.

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