Viewing London Design Festival 2026

Made in London.

London Design Festival returns for its 24th edition this September, spreading design across the capital through installations, exhibitions and 11 Design Districts. Exhibitions, open studios and new launches stretch from Park Royal in the west to Shoreditch in the east.

The Global Design Forum runs at the V&A from 12 – 14 September under the theme ‘Worlds in Motion’, with Es Devlin among those taking to the stage. Material Matters also returns for its fifth London edition at UNLOCKED Shoreditch from 15 – 17 September, with projects exploring everything from bacteria-grown tiles to AI-informed design.

The 2026 edition comes with an updated map: Soho joins as a design district for the first time, tapping into the neighbourhood’s long creative history with a programme across its stores and cultural spaces. Shoreditch Design Triangle has meanwhile grown into Shoreditch Design Week, bringing over 60 showrooms, galleries and creative spaces into the programme. Blackhorse Creates also takes visitors behind the scenes around Blackhorse Lane in Waltham Forest.

At Strand Aldwych, Studio Saar and Atelier One present ‘The Pangolin Shield’, a pavilion inspired by the protective scales of the pangolin. Built around a bamboo structure and layered with traditional Indian police shields and woven rain shields known as knups, the work transforms materials associated with protection into a place for gathering, while also exploring colonial histories and the movement of people across borders.

The Barbican gets a domestic rethink through MADE x Barbican, a new collection informed by the Estate’s archives and the work of Miriam Howitt.. Meanwhile, Craft x Tech Tokai Project pairs Japanese craftspeople with international designers including Bethan Laura Wood and Philippe Malouin, bringing traditional techniques into decidedly contemporary territory.

The V&A joins in with ‘Awakenings’, a museum-wide programme of installations exploring how design, craft and technology are changing the way we experience the world, with new commissions by Aziza Kadyri, Eunjo Lee and Playfool. Meanwhile, St Paul’s Cathedral also gets a contemporary intervention, as Ukrainian artist Mykola Kabluka and Expolight bring The Point of Unity to the UK for the first time alongside ‘Soul’, an audiovisual work projected onto the cathedral façade after dark.

Also worth the detour is Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, which opens to the public after 13 years for ‘The Art of Sound’, an immersive programme from L-Acoustics featuring Max Cooper and Chris Watson.

With more than 300 events on the programme, seeing everything is out of the question. Pick a neighbourhood and go where your eyes take you.