Tent London made its debut during the London Design Festival, receiving in excess of 18,000 visitors – not bad for a brand new design event in London. The show presented over 300 exhibitors who covered every aspect of design; from vintage to modern, art and architecture, and a number of stops in between.
Home-grown talent was prevalent throughout the show from Sixixis, based in Cornwall to Angharad McLaren of Collide based in Shetland. Over seventeen countries exhibited with several designers and collectives from Italy, Japan, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and France.
The shows location in Brick Lane and its historic venue, the Truman Brewery, were an added bonus. The vast eleven-acre site welcomed visitors from all over the world. The design industry mingled with the public, curious locals and a few celebrities. Tent’s Friday night party was a hot ticket and quickly became over-subscribed, so plans for a bigger party will be put in place for Tent London 2008.
HIGHLIGHTS
Visitors to the show on Sunday afternoon had the chance to grab their own free piece of design from Britain’s hottest design duo PearsonLloyd.
Link is a new modular system made from Arpro®, an expanded polypropylene material which is light, strong and durable. Link can be used as a single object or can be built up to form dividers, walls and even whole rooms. Over 1000 links were given away to visitors.
PearsonLloyd Link installation
Source was an area dedicated to lighting. Japanese company WoW chose Source as their UK platform for showcasing their graphic installation ‘Tengible’ - where the tangible and intangible meet. Interplay between shadows, real and imagined was played out on a giant screen, stopping all passing visitors in their tracks.
WoW - Tengible (Source)
Wrap3 installation (Source)
Your Space was the overall name given to the various spaces within the Brewery that housed a series of installations and micro-shows, which allowed brands, groups and individuals a chance to create their own unique space. Emergence Design even treated visitors to a fashion show in their space on the Friday evening.
rAndom International was commissioned by the Limehouse Arts Foundation to design and produce the sneak preview of the new FIAT 500. Changing the light conditions within the presentation space changes the appearance of the windows subtly from transparent to entirely mirrored in different areas, hence creating a 'double take' effect for the bypassing audience...
Further fuelling Tent's emphasis on innovation, the Urbantine Project — a joint initiative with the Workspace Group — sought out the designer who best addressed today's work environment, awarding the winner with a £10,000 construction budget for a show installation. 'Work/Space/Ply/Time’ by emerging architect Alex Haw was the entry that won and was installed in the car park ground of the Brewery. In keeping with the brief to apply the design by fast architecture, the installation was assembled in 48 hours and disassembled in 24 hours.
Tent London set out to create a flexible, affordable and exciting event in the heart of creative London – a venue where designers can afford enough space to show their designs and products without compromise. Next year, Tent London will be even bigger.
