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Brompton Design District asks what home means to you

By Sujata Burman

“It can be a physical space or an emotional state, the place we grew up, the people we feel most comfortable with, objects that we like to keep around us, or simply a safe space”

How do you interpret the word ‘home’? “Home is a topical issue on many fronts, both personal and societal,” says Jane Withers on the theme of Brompton Design District, ‘Make Yourself At Home’. While we all have a sense of what home means to us, these definitions are often quite different. “It can be a physical space or an emotional state, the place we grew up, the people we feel most comfortable with, objects that we like to keep around us, or simply a safe space.”

Withers put these reflections to designers – James Shaw, Martino Gamper, Bethan Laura Wood, Raw Edges and Sanne Visser – and their responses and interpretations confirm the eclectic significance of home within our lives. Internationally renowned design brands based in the District have also responded and will share their latest collections, including Cassina, Molteni&C, Meridiani, Poliform, KARTELL and Slamp. Many of their leading designers will also host talks that engage with the theme.

Martino Gamper has shown on-and-off in Brompton Design District since its curated programme began. In 2016, his ‘Martino Gamper and Friends’ show at SEEDS gallery saw one-of-a-kind ceramics question authorship; and 2022 marks a homecoming for the show, which sees the designer turn home into a place to experiment and create with friends.

“It takes courage to leave a home and it takes hard work to make a new one,” reads the RCA’s interpretation of the theme. The showcase, titled ‘I Was Lost But Now I Live Here’ is a call to “ditch old and unsustainable practices”.

Meanwhile, Studio Sanne Visser speaks to the comforting feeling of home created by hairdressers as we get our hair cut. As part of her residence at the Design Museum and her project ‘Locally Grown’, Visser has created mirrors with human hair. Withers gives context: “Sanne engaged with eight different hairdressers in Kensington and Chelsea to collect their hair waste and consider how they – and their tools – might play a role in a new recycling system that restores a common waste material back into creative reuse.”