Nov 7, 2005 - London has recently hosted 100% Design, the city's response to the Milan Furniture Show that currently dominates the product design calendar. Just as the Italians have spread their show over the city, Londoners have begun to do the same, introducing 100% East in the arty East End, and using more floorspace at Earls Court, the exhibition centre that formerly hosted the British Motor Show.

100% Design is complemented at Earls Court by 100% Detail and 100% Material. Fortunately the exhibition is better than the mathematics, with many independent thinkers provoking the minds of show-goers. Though 100% Design repeats much of what Milan presents earlier in the year, there are still new ideas. DuPont Corian is now 30 years old, but designer Caroline Broadbridge has updated its use, casting it as a solid tablecloth. Fluid expression in solid materials is millennia old, but the way lighting has been used to support this is less common. Recessed decoration brings the thickness of the Corian down from 12+mm to 3mm, thin enough to let the glow from the light-box behind emerge. The interior -and exterior- of the Mazda Sassou at the Frankfurt Motor Show played with a similar way of surprising with light, and certainly this use of Corian could allow for further interesting advancements of dashboard design. Nearby, fledgling company 'ebb' used rival material 'Hi-Macs', by LG, for their novel bathroom suite. Described as 'Natural Acrylic Stone', Hi-Macs is less expensive than Corian, which has so far limited its automotive application. Here, the material is used for integrated bathroom fittings, each item belonging to a single strip. Simplistic architecturally, it is nevertheless interesting, though highlights are caught on the tangent of the radii, lacking the necessary lead-ins. At Modus Design, Polish designer Marek Cecula exhibited his 'Zig Zag' tea set, an indulgent reinterpretation of the traditional teapot that does away with a body so that only handle and spout remain.

Light diffuses through walll Polymer/wire mesh British chainmail... ...and German Tangled chandelier .MGX Materialise

Utterly minimalist in ideation and with Bauhaus overtones, the $200 'Zig Zag' inadvertently proposes the thermodynamic opposite of a sphere, the slender cuboid form optimal for heat loss, while its length would ensure enough sloshing about for the contents to completely miss the accompanying thimbles. Not much would have been lost functionally had it actually been made of chocolate instead. Nevertheless, what is there is well executed, the set remaining unique and curiously desirable.

100% East featured a more eclectic mix of products, including a framed fruit-bowl, so the user 'can create their own still life', next to concrete being used to new effect: cast as flock wallpaper to induce texture, then polished to a mirror finish. The East End also hosted the launch of a hydrogen-powered bike, designed by product designers Seymour Powell.

Designers presented work in the Design Museum too, work from Caroline Noordijk and Florian Ortkrass standing out in particular, their multi-directional lamp a simple and elegant lighting solution that attracted attention from guru Ingo Maurer. Back in Earls Court, newcomers 'Vitamin' displayed a drip-feeder normally found in hospitals for their plant-pots, while 'Juicy Glass' was similarly surprising, designer Sarah McNicol producing non-uniform tiles of mirrors to be placed randomly on strips of Velcro. Contrast abound in McNicol's work, beyond the obvious contrast between the bright, reflective shards, and the dark absorption of the wall, contrasts lay between the hard and soft textures, while the soft Velcro was arranged linearly and the glass randomly. As decoration and illustration have been widely reconstructed as compositions of graphics, there is an intriguing inversion of material choice as well. Fashion has long been trying to incorporate software into its soft wear, Swarovki has created clothes dominated by their crystals, while Oakley already has in production 'Thump', shades for skaters that contain an MP3 player. Cars such as the MINI Traveller at the Frankfurt Motor Show further this: leather encircles the headlamps while chrome piping surrounds the seats. Materials regarded as typically opponent to their application are being used instead of more traditional options.

'Vitamin' plant feed Chipped plywood held in resin Aluminium foam Axolotyl Aluminium built into honeycomb

At 100% Detail and 100% Material, aluminium foam is shown, similarly contradictory, while it is the abundance of chain meshes on display that imprints itself: as links become smaller and more flexible, so this typically hard material attains behaviour comparable to soft fabrics; indeed some are already woven with wire. 100% East also presented fabrics that contain fluorescent thread, revealing patterns in the dark not seen in daylight.

Within the main arena at Earls Court, it is 100% Material that provides the most interest. While other aspects of the event are essentially presenting interpretations of different material's potential use, it is the materials themselves that provide that initial inspiration. Both 100% Design and 100% Detail demand entire halls to themselves, 100% Material, on the other hand, is simply a partition wall. Stepping closer, and it almost seems a climbing wall, every hook holding a sample. The density of ideas is compelling. Aside from the aforementioned aluminium foam was 'axolotl', an organic surface treatment for metals, while aluminium was further used with polypropylene for a crystalline honeycomb. Resin and broad plywood chippings provided another way of considering timber, while Metal-FX is a surface treatment disguising any material as alloy, adhering even to ABS- and magnetising it as well.

100% East and 100% Material are the jewels in the 100% Design crown, but due to the padding provided by the other more mundane exhibits, they do without the impact the furniture has in Milan. However, the show provides useful confirmation of anticipated trends, its popularity set to rise as the edgy East End attracts more young thinkers. Still the city does not have the same thick web of design as Milan, but it certainly demonstrates its intentions.

100% Design website: www.100percentdesign.co.uk

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