London Design Festival 2025
We’re excited for London Design Festival 2025, which kicks off this week (13 - 21 September 2025) and will spread across the London city with exhibitions, installations, and designers from around the world. Each year, more sustainable companies, projects, and designers take part, a momentum that feels both urgent and inspiring. As Modular Plastik, we’re proud to be part of this growing conversation. To celebrate, we’ve picked out five highlights focused on sustainability and sustainable materials that we think our community will love exploring.
Check the ones you like, design your own road map through the city, and don’t forget to book your tickets for the ones need it.
Material Matters London
Dates: 17-20 September 2025
Location: Space House, 1 Kemble Street (Kingsway), WC2B 4AN
What to Expect: Returning for its third edition, Material Matters brings together more than 40 exhibitors working at the forefront of sustainable material innovation. Expect experimental bio-based composites, recycled plastics, circular textiles, low-carbon concrete, and more. Alongside the main showcase, there will be site-specific installations, a talks programme with global design leaders, and live material demonstrations inside the newly renovated Space House.
Why It Matters: This fair is a meeting point for the materials community — bridging industry, design, and research. For the MP community, it’s a chance to see the newest breakthroughs in sustainable surfaces, connect directly with material innovators, and benchmark where our recycled-plastic solutions sit within the wider material ecosystem.
From the Ground Up
Morrama
Dates: 16-20 September 2025
Location: Hackney Depot, 5 Sheep Lane, Hackney, E8 4QS
What to Expect: Bio-based alternatives, circular systems, and “materials built for regeneration.” This exhibition explores design as a system, not just the product, highlighting how the impact of a design is largely bound in its early choices. They display materials ranging from natural substrates to fully decomposed forms.
Why It Matters: Because so much of a product’s environmental cost is locked in at the design stage. MP community members working with novel bio-materials or considering lifecycle impact will find this especially relevant.
Reconstructing Value
Bank of England Museum
Dates: 16-21 September 2025
Location: Bank of England Museum, Bartholomew Lane,
EC2R 8AH
What to Expect: An installation made from £2.5 million worth of reclaimed, recycled, and reconstructed British bank notes, reformed into furniture and sculptural pieces, arranged into the iconic pound symbol. Also material palettes inspired by the bank’s heritage interiors.
Why It Matters: It’s a poetic, physical reimagining of “value” and “waste”, turning what’s been discarded into something both aesthetic and meaningful. For anyone in MP who thinks about reusing unusual waste streams or embedding narrative into reclaimed materials, this is a must-see.
Beyond Foam
EcoLattice & Aram Gallery
Dates: 13 & 15-20 Sept, Aram Gallery, Covent Garden
Location: Aram Gallery, 110 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, WC2B5SG
What to Expect: A showcase of “foams of the future” experimental design using EcoLattice’s 3D-printed foam replacement made from elastomers (e.g. TPU used in phone cases / automotive waste). Eight UK-based designers have developed interactive, seating and furniture pieces, exploring form, comfort, breathability, and recycling potential.
Why It Matters: Foam is everywhere, especially in furniture, interiors, fashion etc., yet conventional polyurethane foams are problematic for recycling, toxicity, end-of-life. EcoLattice’s work offers a credible, scalable alternative. For MP community members exploring alternatives to traditional polymers, or designing for comfortable, long-life products, this is a standout.
“Waste Not: From Fallout to Future”
Presented by ReFactory, collab. with Exiled, powered by MYGroup
Dates: 17-21 September 2025
Location: The Lab E20, 3-4 East Park Walk, East Village, Stratford, Olympic Park, E20 1JB
What to Expect: Furniture, homeware, fashion, accessories, all made entirely from post-consumer waste collected by MYGroup. Collaborations with Exiled, Christopher Raeburn, Katy Mason etc.
Why It Matters: This is not just upcycling but full-scale reclamation of waste materials into design objects. It’s hands-on, visceral, and shows what’s possible when waste is treated as a resource. MP folks working with waste streams, circularity, or regenerative systems will get ideas, inspiration, and possibly even collaborators.
This year’s festival makes one thing clear: sustainable materials are no longer the exception, they’re shaping the future of design. From circular systems and bio-based alternatives to bold experiments with waste, these exhibitions offer plenty of inspiration and practical proof, that design can lead positive change. For us at MP, it’s a reminder that we’re part of a wider movement, one that thrives on collaboration and innovation.
Check the London Design Festival website for the full programme, discover inspiring talks, join well-designed workshops, and most importantly, enjoy!
