London Design Biennale 2018, Somerset House

Scratch-and-sniff wallpapers that evoke the various smells of Hong Kong; immersive video game installations that encourage millennials to talk about mental health and cashmere clouds from Mongolia. These are designs that interrogate how contemporary design affects every aspect of our lives.

Building on the success of its inaugural edition in 2016, London Design Biennale, 2018, returns to Somerset House this September with more than 40 participating countries, spanning six continents. Each exhibiting country will present ideas, artworks and installations that respond to the theme of 'Emotional States', and explore the complex relationship between design and the environmental, social and emotional issues we face each day.

A phenomenal showcase of engaging and innovative designs and design solutions by world-leading designers, architects, scientists and writers, London Design Biennale 2018 is the best in contemporary design from around the world today.

London Design Biennale 2018: UK Pavilion

How Digital Design Paves the Way

Designer: Forensic Architecture

Yazda and Forensic Architecture Reserachers during Interior Photogrammetry training

Representing the UK at London Design Biennale 2018 is Turner Prize-nominated research agency, Forensic Architecture. In their Biennale exhibition, curated in collaboration with the V&A, the collective of artists, filmmakers, software developers, investigative journalists and lawyers will reveal how innovative methods of digital design enable and facilitate on-the-ground DIY cultural heritage documentation and preservation.

Their latest body of work focuses on the Sinjar area of Iraq. Working in Sinjar, Forensic Architecture have assisted the Yazidi people to collect, document and preserve evidence of destruction, genocide and enslavement perpetrated by Daesh (Islamic State) against the Yazda. Central to their stand at the Biennale will be 'on-site imagery', displayed alongside objects used in the training of Iraqi citizens such as rigs made from kites, plastic bottles and helium balloons.

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London Design Biennale 2018: India Pavilion

State of Indigo

Designer: Not disclosed

India's Biennale installation transports visitors to an indigo farm where labourers make indigo dye. Native to the Indian subcontinent, this rare and refulgent pigment has been cultivated in large quantities since the 1600s, and has been used ever since to dye fabric, repel insects, treat ailments, disinfect and even ward off spirits. Inextricably linked to the colonial trade and slavery, Indigo has a polemic history. State of Indigo seeks to unveil the complex social and commercial properties bound up in this pigment, once regarded as more valuable than gold.

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London Design Biennale 2018: Hong Kong Pavilion

Sensorial Estates

Designer: Not disclosed

The Hong Kong Pavilion presents Sensorial Estates, an exhibition exploring the ways in which smell heightens the nostalgia of memory. Central to the installation will be a variety of scratch-and-sniff wallpapers, site-specific objects and designs that evoke smells of the city and Hong Kong's cultural traditions. It's remarkable how a smell can take you back in place and time!

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London Design Biennale 2018: Austria Pavilion

After Abundance

Designer: Designers from the Design Investigations Studio, led by Anab Jain

Global warming is having a devastating effect on our planet and, in particular, on the mountainous landscape of Austria. After Abundance tenderly reveals the physical effects of climate change and the impact this has on traditional agricultural and craft methods. Through a display of first-hand experiments, legal hacks, protest rituals, performances and atmospheric soundscape, the Austrian Pavilion showcases the 'emotional tensions of this altered Austria'.

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London Design Biennale 2018: Brazil Pavilion

Desmatamento

Designer: David Elia

While deforestation rates have decreased by 80% in Brazil since 2004, illegal deforestation continues to devastate the Amazon rainforest. In a bid to protect the home of the most important ecosystems on Earth, Brazil has pledged to combat illegal deforestation by 2030, and recover an area of forest the size of England.

David Elia's Desmatamento, based on the design of Elia’s stool of the same name made in 2013, seeks to draw attention to the fragile state of the Brazilian rainforest. Elia's installation comprises hundreds of stumps of found tree trunks, many of which are painted with an ultramarine blue pigment. This blue line is symbolic of the mark used by forest wardens to indicate trees that are to be saved.

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London Design Biennale 2018: Colombia Pavilion

Triada

Designer: Tu Taller Design, Curated by David H. Del Valle

For David H. Del Valle, curator of Colombia's Pavilion, prejudice has created a great diversity of contradictions that affect the perception of Colombia both externally and internally. London Design Biennale website describes Triada as pnresenting 'different emotional states, framed in two specific moments that will allow visitors to experience a little bit of the fear, shame, guilt, pride, happiness and joy that exist in this great territory'. Despite recent scourges of social and political corruption, Triada is a public means of showcasing the ways in which the country has grown, developed and evolved in recent years.

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London Design Biennale 2018: The Better Shelter

Country: Stateless

The Better Shelter Pavilion offers visitors the opportunity to engage with stories of international refugees and offers the 'stateless' an important voice. Through a narrative of positive refugee stories, The Better Shelter Pavilion provides an insight into what it may really like to be a refugee today.