Material Matters, the cross-media platform promoting material intelligence in architecture and design, returns for its fifth London edition from 15-17 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.

‘We are delighted that we have a new home in Shoreditch, collaborating with SDW owners Media10,’ say Material Matters co-founders Grant Gibson and William Knight.

While the venue has changed, the ethos remains the same: around 50 exhibitors selected for their commitment to material intelligence, a series of special features, and a café that, this year, doubles as the home of the fair’s talks programme.

Highlights are numerous and include:

Berghaus announced as Thought Leadership Partner

Material Matters is delighted to reveal Berghaus as its official Thought Leadership Partner. The Pentland Brands-owned outdoor wear brand is aligned through its commitment to purposeful innovation and durable, technical material performance. The partnership centres on two flagship moments: a high-visibility presence at Material Matters London (15-17 September), where Berghaus' design and innovation teams will help shape the programme and space at UNLOCKED Shoreditch for the Café Conversations talks series, and the hosting of the Assemble with Material Matters conference in November at Pentland Brands' London HQ. For Material Matters' audiences, the partnership offers a rare window into how a leading UK performance brand approaches material intelligence in practice – delivering unique, first-hand insight from a company operating at the sharp end of innovation and design.

Materials that grow

Material Matters continues its championing of material innovation with a group of exhibitors whose products are, quite literally, alive. Topping the bill are FRONT® and biotech company Biomason, exhibiting together to unveil Mimmik Tile™– a floor and wall tile that grows with the help of bacteria and is now produced on an industrial scale. Inspired by coral, one of nature’s most durable structures, the technology uses bacteria to bind carbon and calcium into a biologically formed marble-like material in a process that takes just two days.

Carbon Cell presents its plastic-free alternative to polymer-based foams, made with carbon-negative biochar and designed to slot into existing manufacturing processes and usable in acoustic panels, packaging, interior products and composites.

Phyta Biodesign, a London studio on a mission to rewild the built environment, shows Fauna, a modular, ceramic 3D-printed façade system that integrates species-specific wildlife habitats directly into building surfaces, and Apia, a mycelium-composite wall panel system providing nesting habitats for solitary bees.

The New Materialist, a biomaterial innovation lab, showcases its work helping premium brands transition to regenerative biomaterials, while WEI STUDIO presents GROUND, a collection of furniture and home objects made from granulated and expanded cork bound with natural latex – designed to be recognised through touch, scent and softness as much as sight.

Steppe – informed by Mongolian nomadic lifeways, where multispecies relations function as vital infrastructure for life, resilience and freedom – presents new prototypes for multispecies life in urban homes including  Spoor, a digestible plant-based interface that lets animals express wellbeing preferences through instinctive choices.

Finally, India Iles shows two large floor lamps with plywood bases and shades of dyed kelp. The pieces bring seaweed into durable lighting - playful pieces that blend the curves and colour of 1960s post-war design with imagery from her upbringing in Ho Chi Minh City.

Waste, reimagined

Elsewhere, the fair celebrates designers and studios turning waste streams into objects of lasting value. The Or Foundation, based in Ghana, upcycles and remanufactures fashion’s global waste. It debuts its first-edition Foose Acoustics line – bookshelf speakers, acoustic panels and wall treatments made from Cassaboard, a biocomposite of post-consumer clothing waste and cassava-based binders – alongside Tarnty, a circular yarn made directly from unsold T-shirts.

Spared®, the Brighton-based studio that has reimagined everything from oyster shells and coffee grounds to masonry waste and bottle tops, brings its waste-led approach to bespoke furniture and interiors.

Prima Materia presents Demolition to Design, a new furniture collection crafted from reclaimed oak salvaged from Selkirk House, a 1960s Brutalist tower on the One Museum Street development in Holborn. Each piece is accompanied by a digital product passport tracing the timber from demolition site to finished object.

Neve Beill Ceramics launches Thames Matter, a collection hand-thrown from London clay collected on the Thames Foreshore, with glazes incorporating reclaimed glass and foreshore minerals – from intimate objects to large-scale vessels.

Tabitha Bargh presents two lighting collections that transform overlooked materials: CartOn, built from layered cardboard that filters light to reveal unexpected delicacy, and Poly, made from reclaimed estate agent boards – extended this year with the launch of Poly 1 XL and new Poly Table versions.

And Scottish brand, Kenoteq, presents its ultra-low carbon bricks made from recycled waste.

A celebration of wood

Timber – long central to the fair’s story – gets its own showcase. Josh Ling Studio presents Increase the Noise, its first collection – five pieces in Ash, Elm, Oak and London Plane, created during a residency at Makerversity, Somerset House. Drawing on industry research into British-grown mixed-species Glulam beams, the laminated components are split to reveal the inner character of the timbers, promoting beauty in diversity.

David Colwell, one of the pioneers of sustainable design, shows timeless, nature-first furniture. Fallen & Felled repurposes fallen urban trees into hardwood furniture, and LOXKIN presents its plant-based wood finishes made from UK-grown regenerative hemp seed oil and high-welfare beeswax, alongside interactive versions of its Nothing Is Wasted workshop.

Last but by no means least, the Wood Awards, the UK’s foremost competition for architecture and product design in wood, returns with its 2026 exhibition – showcasing the shortlisted Furniture & Objects projects, from one-off designs and production pieces to student work, alongside displays of shortlisted buildings and structures from across the UK.

Craft and experiment

Adding to the line-up is a series of studios where craftsmanship meets material experimentation. Dutch studio Stoksel presents the world premiere of a table conceived especially for the fair – showcasing its pioneering use of vitreous enamel on stainless steel. A rare technique in which coloured glass is fused with metal at high temperatures to create surfaces of extraordinary depth, vivid light reflection and exceptional durability – accompanied by a curated series of enamel samples.

Helena C Williams shows Itera, her modular furniture system of repeated steel frames and aluminium connector joints: a stool pairing the frame with a leather-covered seat. Rather than concealing its fixings, Itera celebrates them as a defining design feature – built for repair, replacement and long-term use.

Elsewhere, Architextures showcases its digital library of more than 8,000 material textures, alongside its Materials in Motion film and Stories magazine; Procédés Chénel International displays its innovative decorative solutions; and Ultrafabrics features its PVC-free, low-VOC material solutions.

This year’s show contains a string of fascinating exhibitors, working in everything from British hardwood to bacteria,’ continue Gibson and Knight. ‘It strikes us that what they all have in common is the desire to make the world a slightly better place. There is a sense of optimism and joy about this year’s fair. We can’t wait to open the doors.’

The fair’s café will house the Café Conversations series, shaped with Berghaus – with further exhibitor announcements and the full talks line-up to follow in the coming weeks.

 

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