Material Matters 2023

Material Matters 2023 occupies all five floors of the iconic London venue within the Bankside Design District. The fair is the key event for Material Matters – an international platform for engagement, collaboration and inspiration for the design and architecture industries. It investigates and spotlights leaders across design working to develop new and innovative ways of using materials and illustrating why material intelligence is so important to our collective futures. Visitors to the fair will experience a spectrum of expertise, innovation and product reflecting the future of design. At the entrance, Danish textile designer Tanja Kirst demonstrates the beauty of combining orange peel, seaweed and hemp into textiles without compromising aesthetics. Along with this year’s Headline Sponsor, Bert Frank, the Planted installation sets the tone for the entire fair. Further into the building, visitors will experience displays by innovators and experimentalists, whose practice is at the cutting edge of materials and products, some straight from research laboratories. The floor above includes a room dedicated to Hydro, the global aluminium manufacturer, including the London debut of the Bello! bench by Lars Beller Fjetland. The clean-tech start-up company, The Tyre Collective, will also demonstrate its process for capturing and re-constituting rubber particles. The third floor is dedicated to market-ready, cleverly designed products that have a material focus. It will play host to a wide range of companies, makers and manufacturers, including a significant area curated by the Milan-based platform, Isola, with a selection of designers from across its international community. The fourth and top floor is a spectacular 50-metre-long loft containing the event's talk space and a roster of designers, makers and smaller manufacturers working in various materials. The line-up will include HagenHinderdael, Mixed Metals, BC Joshua, and Solidwool featured in 2022's fair. They'll sit alongside brands new to the event, such as Novavita Design, Ana Bridgewater also known as Abalon, The Wicker Story, Goldfinger (wood), Planq (denim), Regular Concrete, and Yair Neuman (discarded lenses). Meanwhile, the Wood Awards exhibition will showcase the buildings, furniture and products shortlisted for the Wood Awards 2023 at gallery@oxo, adjacent to Bargehouse. The shortlist will provide a window into how timber can transform and enrich our lives and contribute to positive change in the built environment with exceptional wood-centric work from some of the UK's most interesting contemporary architects, designers and makers. The headline sponsor for Material Matters 2023 is Bert Frank. The UK manufacturer produces beautiful lighting to order from its base in Birmingham, using traditional methods and materials paired with the latest technology. Its space within the fair will feature a range of products, including a brand-new collection that features a variety of material finishes.