Material Matters, the cross-media platform promoting material intelligence in architecture and design, returns for its fifth London edition from 15-17th September 2026 in a new home.
UNLOCKED Shoreditch is a multi-level former industrial warehouse on Curtain Road, at the heart of Shoreditch Design Week (SDW) – the most significant district within the annual London Design Festival.
One of the highlights promises to be an installation from global agency Matrix Design. Hand, Code, Matter: A New Flow for Spatial Design explores how emerging technologies are reshaping the future of architecture and interior design, without losing sight of human creativity. The installation brings together works from eight recent graduate architects to demonstrate how hand-making, drawing and artificial intelligence can combine to create spaces that are deeply personal, culturally grounded, and emotionally resonant.
On the subject of recent graduates, Material Matters is showcasing the Only Natural International Student Design Competition at this year’s fair once again. Only Natural is a global movement promoting the use of natural materials in contemporary design. It champions fibres such as wool, hemp, leather and wood as renewable, durable alternatives to synthetic materials. At its core is the student design competition, which invites emerging designers to explore the creative potential of nature-based materials across fashion, furniture and interiors. The projects featured at the fair showcase the versatility of nature-based materials and highlight innovative approaches to craft, material intelligence and responsible production.
As ever, the fair will have a lively talks programme in the guise of the Cafe Conversations. Material Matters’ Thought Leadership Partner, Berghaus, will provide one talk a day, while other subjects tackled include working with waste, and the importance of bio design. Look out too for the return of the Negroni Talks, brainchild of London-based architecture practice Fourth Space, on 16 September at 6pm. This year the team will be investigating the relationship between fashion and architecture with speakers coming from the likes of ZHA and O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects.
Meanwhile, other names around the aisles to look out for include:
Zieta Studios presents the Whispers Bench at the fair's entrance. Architect and designer Oskar Zięta is known internationally for his innovation with FiDU – a process that enables an ‘inflation’ of flat steel into complex structural forms.
Pani Jurek Studio shows its OP Ceramic Modular System from the OP Object collection – an interactive structure composed of ceramic tiles that rotate around their own axes, creating open space dividers or mounted modular wall compositions.
Studio Gonzalo Bascuñan displays Carding Collectibles, a colourful collection of contemporary lighting design objects crafted from recycled cotton. The installation takes inspiration from the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry on the Atacama Desert, in the designer’s home nation of Chile.
Benchspace is a communal workshop based in south east London. At the fair, it will re-create a workshop workbench, assembling and finishing a product made using digital technology and finished by hand.
Sunday Light presents a ceiling-mounted lighting system that replicates the rhythm of daylight.
Bo Gyeom Kim is a designer and artist whose practice explores material experimentation and speculative futures. He shows Post Plastic, an installation that speculates on a future beyond the Anthropocene.
Deniz Beck Partners is a Turkish-born, Portsmouth-based conservation architect, cultural producer and founder of Sustainable Conservation Trust (SCT). Her installation, The Shape of Memory – based around her work at Fort Gilkicker, a Victorian sea fort in Gosport – marks a significant moment in her transition from architect and heritage practitioner into a more explicitly research-led artistic practice.
Emerging designer Olivia Webb creates an installation in the ‘threshold’ space between the entrance hall and the main exhibition area. Made with Love is a regenerative interior architectural system made from local floriculture byproducts scaled via modular joints and material infill components.
