Walala - la - London
With the month of September, comes the London Design Festival -- celebrating London as a design capital of the world, featuring 417 design projects and events from the country’s greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators. The first London Design Festival was held in March, 2003-- now in its fifteenth year, various venues and institutions across London will be hosting the Festival September 16th - 24th.
A photograph by Andy Stagg of Camille Walala’s playscape for the London Design Festival, 2017
Among the sensory-wonderland of the London Design Festival is the Landmark Project, a pavilion built by a highlighted artist each year. Featured this year, the Villa Walala playscape, designed by Camille Walala. Walala established her studio and brand in East London in 2009 and I've been fan-girling ever since. Following her degree in textile design from the University of Brighton, her textile designs have transformed into other forms of expression -- art direction, interior design, murals and installations.
A photograph by Andy Stagg of Camille Walala’s playscape for the London Design Festival, 2017
Instagram photo by @emmajanepalin
Camille Walala’s style uses a unique combination of patterns and colors with influences from the Memphis Movement, the Ndebele tribe and Victor Vasarely. Her playscape is not your typical playground -- think bounce house. Created from vinyl, sealed PVC inners and high-strength nylon, the shapes are pinned to the ground and inflated by fans from below. And the siting of this spectacle is impeccable-- the suits in the rendering are not a lack of appropriate entourage. The Villa is located in the unexpected architectural landscape of Exchange Square, Broadgate. Walala’s installation also includes various surprises such as stress-balls as a means to injecting joy into the daily-grind of local office workers. A ‘purveyor of positivity’, the design sense that Camille Walala brings to London brings a smile to all those that pass by.
Villa Walala photograph via Instagram @CamilleWalala
If you are in London mid-September, be sure to indulge in what the London Design Festival has curated, and don’t miss the Landmark Project, Villa Walala. It is sure to make you super happy, and also, fill your instagram with the best color content.
