After my recent visit to the biotech hub Open Cell at the Shepherds Bush Market, I was keen to learn more about biodesign and its future. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long because at the London Design Festival this year, Open Cell organised an event called Biodesign Here Now at its [...]

 
Please Be Seated is a large-scale installation designed by Paul Cocksedge, and it is made from more than 1,000 scaffolding planks. Cocksedge collaborated with Essex-based high-end interiors company White & White to re-imagine and re-use the building wood. The curvy seating encouraged passerby to sit and relax with their books or lap tops, which [...]

Shepherds Bush market
 
In the last few years, we are hearing more of the terms 'biodesign' and 'biotech', but is it a fad or a breakthrough that will change our world? Recently, I joined a design-oriented walk called 'Human: Biophilia in community and design' organised by the Design Museum and curated by Something [...]

 
Architecture in Bexleyheath
 
Although I live in London, there are still many areas of the city that I am unfamiliar with or have never been to. I have long wanted to visit William Morris' former residence Red House in Bexleyheath, but somehow never got round to it. Since August is a quiet [...]

 
 
One might expect museums like V & A or the Design Museum to dedicate an exhibition on the world’s most famous shoe designer, Manolo Blahnik. Yet the "An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik" exhibition opened at The Wallace Collection, a smaller and less well-known museum converted from an opulent 18th century [...]

 
How many of us pay attention to the text and typography around us in the city? When we are rushing around the city, we tend to miss what is right under our noses. During the London Craft week, I joined the "Creative Inspiration Walk: Text in the City" organised by The Goldsmiths [...]

 
I have been wanting to visit paper specialist G . F Smith's showroom since it opened in 2016, but somehow never got round to it. The London craft week provided me the opportunity to visit the showroom as well as the new exhibition 'Beyond Paper – The Craft of Material Making' co-organised [...]

 
The first stop of my three-week trip in Scotland this summer was Glasgow. Although the city is not as glamourous as Edinburgh, I tend to have a bias towards Glasgow, partly because of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and partly because of its friendly residents.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of [...]

 
After visiting Paris design week, I came back to London just in time for the London design festival. The scale of the festival is much bigger than the Paris one, which makes it harder to cover, hence I decided to focus on the main venue and the trade fairs.
My first stop was [...]

‘Metropolis' (1988) by Zaha Hadid at the entrance of the exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery

 
I have previously written about the late British Iraqi star architect Zaha Hadid (click here), and I showed little enthusiasm about her later works. However, I was a fan of her earlier paintings – the conceptual ones [...]