Festival Commission

Designposts: Darta Shokrzadeh | Southwark South Design District

By American Hardwood Export Council

Darta Shokrzadeh’s Designpost captures the round-the-clock busyness and multi-ethnic vibrancy of Southwark South.

Darta’s Designpost is part of a wider collaboration between LDF, the American Hardwood Export Council, and three leading British furniture makers Benchmark, Sebastian Cox and Jan Hendzel that pays tribute to London’s neighbourhoods and presents the potential of an underused and highly sustainable material – American red oak. The design is a personal response to the streets of Southwark, stemming from time spent exploring the district. Based on photographs taken by Darta, the design captures the busyness and multi-ethnic vibrancy of the area, expressing both the daytime bustle of the streets and markets and the energy of its bars and clubs by night. The tree-like structure is created using a 12-sided column of solid red oak, supporting 24 CNC cut and hand finished characters of Southwark South. The technicality of this piece is hidden to the viewer with its precision construction of the trunk and a bespoke timber bracket to secure the characters in place. The Designpost is located outside the Peckham Library and is one of ten that can be found in locations across London; King’s Cross, Islington, Greenwich, Shoreditch, Brompton, Waltham Forest, the Design Museum, Park Royal and Clerkenwell. Made by Jan Hendzel Studio