Since 2003 London Design Festival (LDF) has been celebrating and promoting London as the design capital of the world. Alongside a full roster of exhibitions, events, and projects, each year the festival commissions ambitious installations that underline the innovation, creativity and imagination at the heart of design.

Material Connections is an exhibition and workshop series featuring works by emerging designers who look to materials and making to engage in conversations about culture, and social and environmental sustainability. As designers shift away from an emphasis on functionality, they are increasingly embedding narratives in the making process. In an industry where surface impressions are too often all that matters, this exhibition celebrates the integrity of craft-making processes, and uses craft and making as a way of engaging with ideas, from agriculture and forestry, to the preservation of cultural heritage and the redefining of community.

Curated by Abbie Adams, designer in residence at Somerset House, the exhibition brings together people and materials from around the world, including embroidery from the Jordan Valley, and garments hand crocheted by ‘Kanyogoa’ mothers in Uganda. This is about making as a narrative tool, as well as emphasising shared skill and cooperation as central to creative collaboration.

The Koppel Project, 49 Poland Street, London, 14 and 16-22 September 2019

Originally published in the current issue. Subscribe to Selvedge here.