London Design Biennale 2025 announces first pavilions
The London Design Biennale has announced the first 20 national pavilions for its fifth edition, taking place from 5 to 29 June 2025 at Somerset House. This year’s theme, ‘Surface Reflections’, set by artistic director Dr Samuel Ross, calls for an exploration of how identities are shaped by cultural, historical and material forces.
Hong Kong, 'Human-Centred. Design: Visuospace' © H.S. Choi.
More than 40 participants from six continents are expected, with early highlights already revealing a wide-ranging response to the theme. Argentina’s pavilion, Sur Andina, revisits Andean agricultural and textile knowledge, offering a model for future resilience. Hong Kong’s Visuospace uses neuroscience to question how cities influence mental wellbeing, while Poland’s project reflects on the act of waiting as an emotional and political condition.
Several installations reinterpret cultural memory through material practices. Malta will present a pavilion centred on mourning rituals, drawing parallels between ancient traditions and grief. Nigeria’s exhibit celebrates Lejja’s iron smelting heritage, offering a rethinking of technological histories, while Oman uses geological artefacts to narrate environmental resilience across millennia.
Nigeria, 'Hopes and Impediments'. © Kadessi Ana.
Urbanism and soundscapes emerge as strong threads throughout the pavilions. Turkey’s Trace documents disappearing urban craftsmanship. Switzerland’s Silent Echoes captures the sonic imprint of retreating glaciers. Latvia’s Floating Futures imagines adaptable communities responding to climate-induced displacement. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Resonant Forms interrogates the relationship between architecture and sound, and the Netherlands draws connections between Caribbean and European histories through collaborative research.
Oman, 'Memory Grid' © Courtesy of Oman pavilion
The Biennale’s academic strand, Eureka, returns with research-driven installations. Living Assembly from Northumbria University and UCL explores sustainable fungal construction systems. VCUarts Qatar’s Matter Diplopia investigates the manipulation of material perception, and Eco-Vision Plan’s Rainforest Succession documents ecological storytelling in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Malta, 'URNA*, Conceptual Render. © Design by Ebejer Bonnici, Courtesy of Malta Arts Council
Director Victoria Broackes said this year’s programme meets a moment of rapid global change: “There is an even greater need for dialogue, imagination and collaboration. Somerset House will once again be a space where designers from across the world come together to explore what design can do.”
Tickets are now on sale for the London Design Biennale
Date: 5–29 June 2025, Location:Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. Price: from £22. Concessions available. Book now.
