Panelists to look out for include: Han Ates, founder of denim company Blackhorse Lane Studio; Sara Grady, co-founder of British Pasture Leather; PriestmanGoode’s Maria Katel-Bentkowska; Rowan Moore, architecture critic of The Observer; editor-in-chief of Car Design News James McLachlan; Assemble’s Maria Lisogorskaya; and AHMM’s Paul Monaghan to name just a few.
There is a ‘show and tell’ session featuring a fistful of material pioneers, including: Sanne Visser who works with human hair; Karlijn Sibbel, innovation director of seaweed-based packaging brand Notpla; Yash Shah founder of ground breaking foam company EcoLattice; and Lucy Black of sustainable brick manufacturer Kenoteq.
Meanwhile, keynotes come from: materials guru Caroline Till; academic, author and manufacturing expert Professor Tim Minshall; Peter Apps, journalist and writer of the extraordinary book on the Grenfell Tower fire, Show Me The Bodies. Finally, the ever-excellent Glenn Adamson will be closing proceedings.
Not only that, there will be plenty of opportunities for networking, not least in the evening at the Bank of England Museum when the likes of Alkesh Parmar, Rootfull, Sanne Visser, Lulu Harrison and Solidwool will be displaying work.
‘It feels like a great, celebratory way to finish off what has been an extraordinary year for Material Matters,’ explain co-founders Grant Gibson and William Knight. ‘The day will feature some of our wonderful guests from the last six years of the podcast, as well as others we’d love to feature in the future. We could not be more excited. If you love the podcast you’ll have a blast at Assemble’. You can see the full programme here.