September news: design for holes, homes and hopes

Ever thought about the objects you put into your body? Heirloom has. The studio’s LDF show ‘Out of Orifice’ is a deep dive into the things we insert into ourselves – for fun, fashion or medical necessity.

On display at Heirloom’s East London office at 5 Tredegar Terrace, the exhibition brings together 36 objects and seven orifices, raising questions about what we put into ourselves, why we put it there, how their context influences the way they are designed, and whether we might make them better. 

‘Out of Orifice’ is open daily from 10am to 5pm, until this Friday,19 September.

Enter here

Too often, transformative change is assumed to be a top-down force that filters to the local level. But what if we inverted that process? For over 10 years in Birmingham, CIVIC SQUARE has been prototyping a new vision of change – one that takes place at the neighbourhood level, firmly rooted in genuine grassroots collaboration.

Co-founded by Imandeep Kaur, CIVIC SQUARE joins conversations about home, street and neighbourhood-scale governance and the built environment with a wider ecosystem of interconnected movements at local, national and global scales. Zetteler is standing alongside CIVIC SQUARE and its belief in neighbourhoods at the forefront of wider societal change, and will lead its strategic communications for the most ambitious moment in their history. Stay tuned for major announcements in 2025 and 2026.

Welcome to the neighbourhood

On Thursday 2 October, British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori MBE unveils 'Walk With Your Dreams' in Milton Keynes Station Square, filling the public space with colour and capturing the dynamism and diversity of one of the fastest-growing cities in the UK.

Inspired by Ilori's roots, the bold, colourful artwork draws upon the graphic weave of Nigerian textile patterns to celebrate the cultural variety of Milton Keynes (where 52% of children are from ethnically diverse backgrounds). One of the largest installations in a city of more than 270 public artworks, Ilori’s piece is complemented and framed by a creative seasonal planting scheme from landscape architects Planit.

Walk With Your Dreams

Launching on 30 September, OpenAREA is a new platform that aims to radically reinvent the cultural conversation about nature.Its founder, creative strategist Ollie Olanipekun (also behind the hit POC-led birdwatching club Flock Together) was once a boy scout and is now an ambassador for conservation charities RSPB and WWT – yet he recognises a huge problem facing such organisations: they are lagging behind the wider demographic shifts unfolding across society, failing to connect with people of colour and younger generations.

Starting with a six-day event in Camley Street Natural Park, OpenAREA is setting out to reframe nature not as a backdrop but as a raw material of culture that anyone can interact with and shape.

Get wild

In countless places across the world, children are facing upheaval, uncertainty and loss. From natural disasters to war and political turmoil, their lives are disrupted, and needs for food, safety and shelter are put at risk – as is their access to play. 

UK-based charity Playrise, founded by photographer Alexander Meininger, aims to make the lives of children in disaster-stricken areas a little better. Its brave cause begins with developing a prototype play structure for delivery to and installation at NGO relief sites worldwide. Modular, versatile and easy to assemble, the structure doesn’t require structural foundations or specialist skills.

Zetteler is leading the communication strategy to launch this unique and important project to the world – a compelling example of the role and impact of design as a force for social good, due to launch in London in the new year. 

Serious play

The always-exciting Andu Masebo has brought a trio of compelling commissions to LDF this week. A Good Idea is part of Brompton Design District curator Alex Tieghi-Walker’s theme ‘A Softer World’. It presents 12 spun aluminium stools alongside a display of accompanying behind-the-scenes material – including WhatsApp transcripts, preparatory drawings and reference material.

Meanwhile, Max Radford Gallery collaborates with heritage British furniture maker Ercol for a special exhibition at Clerkenwell Fire Station that brings together seven designers: Andu with EJR Barnes, Eddie Olin, Joe Armitage, Jaclyn Pappalardo, Isabel Alonso, and Lewis Kemmenoe.

And for those of you who missed AHEC’s Copenhagen exhibition No.1 Common, you’ll have a chance to see Andu’s work alongside Daniel Schofield and Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng at Material Matters. The pieces champion a sustainable approach to material selection: ‘use what nature provides’.

Follow Andu

Retrofit specialist O’DonnellBrown has now completed its ambitious reinvention of New Farm Loch Community Centre in Kilmarnock, delivering a future-proofed, energy-efficient facility for the performing arts, community and youth development charity Take A Bow.

An aesthetic and functional transformation of a tired 1970s blockwork building, the new centre is a compelling example of community-led regeneration in action. The project has seen O’DonnellBrown engaging closely with residents, local stakeholders and the Take A Bow team to ensure a thriving future for the charity, the young people it supports, and the community at large. As O’DonnellBrown director Michael Dougall puts it: “It stands as a beacon of what meaningful investment in existing infrastructure can deliver – not only in terms of environmental performance but also in empowering the communities it serves.”

Take a bow

The second part of artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan’s sculptural commission for UP Projects, Bodies of Water, has just been unveiled at Haigh Hall, Greater Manchester.

The artwork, ‘Snail on me’, takes pride of place in the hall’s walled garden, at the centre of a pond, collecting and filtering rainwater while creating wildlife habitats to encourage biodiversity. A continuation of Jordan’s longstanding interest in ecological phenomena and ecosystems, the piece offers a timely, poetic reflection on the politics of water.

Snail on you

On Friday, 19 September, Duke Street Property and Fora host guided tours of the Parcels Building as part of this year’s Open House Festival. Built as an office in the 1950s, the Parcels Building is situated above London’s Post Office Railway tunnels, once the backbone of the city’s communications network, beside the Western Parcels Office station, which gives it its name. 

DSP commissioned Grafton Architects to lead a thoughtful renovation, resulting in a six-storey state-of-the-art sustainable workspace in the heart of the West End. Led by Development and Design Director Nicola Hawkins, the tours are set to offer fascinating insights into the architectural history of a modern London landmark.

Book tour tickets