London has "the best architecture and interior design community in Europe" says Duncan Riches

As Shoreditch Design Week kicks off its inaugural edition at this year's London Design Festival, we interviewed creative director Duncan Riches about how he aims to bring design back to the east London neighbourhood.

If you ask people in London's design scene which of the ever-increasing London Design Festival (LDF) districts are a must-visit, chances are they'll say Brompton – where the V&A hub is – and Shoreditch.

The ex-industrial east London neighbourhood was the epicentre of the city's creative scene during the early 2000s, but has since become better known for its restaurants and nightlife – which seem to cater mostly to tourists – than its independent designers.

That could be about to change, though, as Riches, creative director of the newly minted Shoreditch Design Week, aims to help emerging designers and commercial brands work together to bring the design trade back to Shoreditch.

"I want to have a real core of trade"

The week will be centred around four curated trade exhibitions, including the interior design show House of Icon at Shoreditch Town Hall, graduate design showcase New Designers and materials fair Material Matters.

"I want to have a real core of trade; brands that show in the main venues, people from across London, hopefully companies from across the UK, and even better, companies not from the UK who want to work in the UK," Riches told Dezeen.

"I want to get those brands with their products in front of our audience – honestly, we have the best architecture and interior design community in the whole of Europe."

As well as the larger exhibitions, the week will also feature numerous smaller shows, while local brands such as Ally Capellino and Lee Broom will open up their showrooms to the public for product launches and drinks.

Riches's aim is for Shoreditch Design Week to become a place where "all the young talent and the emerging things can also have a home because really, what they all need is footfall and professional interest".

Shoreditch hospitality doesn't "have a relationship with the daytime economy"

But making Shoreditch fertile ground for designers once again is not without its challenges. Other popular design weeks, perhaps especially Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design, often integrate the entire neighbourhood, something that doesn't currently happen in Shoreditch.

"One of the problems in Shoreditch is there are so many restaurants and bars and a nighttime economy," Riches said.

"They don't have a relationship with the daytime economy. If you go to 3 Days, you'll go to a lovely showroom, you'll see some beautiful lights, and then the florist across the road has got the lights hanging there and the pastries are from the pastry shop next door."

In contrast, Shoreditch doesn't have those connections as the industries aren't working together, according to Riches, despite his various attempts to integrate them.

"I desperately tried to get a lovely restaurant last year to take out all of their furniture and put in Fredericia because they wanted to do a show there," he said.

"They were like, 'You're mad. What is this?' And then like four weeks before, they said, 'Oh, we think we could do that.' And I said, 'We need to know four months in advance."

With events company Media 10 having recently bought Shoreditch Design Week – formerly known as Shoreditch Design Triangle – from furniture brand SCP, Riches says the event now has access to larger spaces and is able to put on much bigger shows.

"What Media 10 do, and the investment that they bring, is multi-year deals," he said. "So when you go to Shoreditch Town Hall and say to them, 'Look, we want to do it for three years,' you get the kind of rate which allows you to put on a show and make it okay in terms of the cost for the exhibitors."

Industry-focused events lacking at LDF

Riches believes there is still a need for an event that is more focused on people working in the industry – something that he thinks is lacking when it comes to LDF as a whole.

"They've done a brilliant job in promoting design culture across London," he said. "But what happened is they've stopped serving the kind of core design community, and that is furniture, product, lighting, textiles, ceramics, glass – that kind of world."

"It's great that there's a platform for design, all types of design around London. But the people in the industry, they need an industry event; they need buyers to come, they need architects to come. They need both of them."

Riches believes that creating a trade hub in Shoreditch will also prove to be beneficial for the wider LDF event.

"I just hope that us being able to create a kind of trade epicentre, if you like, will really help LDF in general," he said.

And while he doesn't see Shoreditch Design Week as being a competitor to LDF, Riches also wants the area to have its own unique identity.

"We've called it 'Design Week', by the way," he said, "because it really does need to stand on its own two feet."

Riches hopes the mixed programme at this year's inaugural edition will mean that everyone can see something they're interested in – whether it's design industry people spending a whole day in the area, or people who just swing by an event after work.

As well as the main flagship shows, there are a number of younger designers showcasing their work, including design gallery Slancha.

"My job is like a massive matchmaker"

Riches sees facilitating collaborations between smaller designers and brands – such as Slancha's takeover of the shop at The Hoxton hotel this year – as a key part of his job.

"My role is to be a friend to everyone," he said. "Often brands are so wrapped up in the busyness of what they're doing, they find it hard to actually know who to go to or where to go. My job is like a massive matchmaker."

But there might be less need for design matchmaking in the future. Riches has found that emerging designers today are more capable of getting their work seen than in previous years, which he takes as a reassuring sign.

"If I take a young designer now and I look at their knowledge base, I think they're a lot more canny than they were 15 years ago," he said.

Overall, he believes that the current London design scene is also more vibrant than it has been in many years.

"There is loads to be really positive about right now, and I'm just amazed at where we're at," said Riches.

"And as a Londoner, I'm just kind of thrilled to come back, because London always has that up and down. It's always going to have that, but it feels like we're at the stage where it's just coming up once again, and there's a bit more excitement about it."

The main image of House of Icon in 2025 is by Sam Frost.

This article was originally written as part of our Dezeen Dispatch magazine for LDF 2026. Read an online version of the magazine here.

Shoreditch Design Week runs from 15 to 20 September. See our London Design Festival 2026 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that take place during the week.

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