London Design Biennale

Referencing utopian city planning, 'Bliss' is a concentric arrangement of stainless steel columns and benches that encourages both self-reflection and solidarity. 

Designer Brodie Neill's 'Plastic Effects' makes a thing of beauty to highlight an ugly problem: the amount of plastic waste in the ocean.

Belgium muses on today's 'EUtopia' by producing a new utopian map as a symbolic wake-up call for Europe: Exactly 500 years of Utopia - approximately 50 years of EUtopia.

Collectives have long been a source of utopian principles and practices - and Croatia has a history of producing them. The country's installation, 'Utopian Collective', supports that tradition.

Memories of Syria are collected and shared through the installation, 'Le Bruit Des Bonbons - The Astounding Eyes of Syria', in a bid to preserve, stir up and share immaterial memories of its living heritage, and to provoke action. Benjamin Loyauté visited (refugee) camps such as the one in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, to make a film on immaterial culture and word-objects.

'Utopian Landscape', a recreation of a marble quarry, is potent ground for an investigation into heritage, trade and migration.

The installation 'Chakraview' looks at India's multiple utopias. Traditional textiles and ancient mythology weave together a sense of modern India.

'Freedome' brings the ideals of the 1955 Bangdung Charter, promoting world peace and cooperation, into the 21st century. 'Freedome' is a bell-curved dome composed of staffs and orbs made from coir, a material derived from the shaggy hide of the coconut.

Twenty Italian designers adopt the symbollic 'White Flag' as a utopian emblem of global truce.

Yasuhiro Suzuki's installation, 'A Journey Around the Neighbourhood Globe', promises to change the way we look at everyday things.

'Mezzing in Lebanon' brings a slice of Beirut street life to the centre of London, celebrating utopia through the everyday designs of the people of Lebanon.

Fernando Romero's 'Border City' synthesises the urban forms of the past with the challenges of the future. "The principal challenge is to create a system that is realistic and easy to implement in communities and countries that are located in a border situation and are still developing,' Romero says. These difficult "border situations", such as Mexico's frontiers with the United States, are likely to multiply across the world as populations grow and migration increases.

Considering the archive as a sort of utopia, Studio Makkink & Bey's scale 'Design Diorama: The Archive as a Utopic Environment' presents a narrative of Dutch design through a collection and network of real objects, personalities and stories.

'Reaching for Utopia - Inclusive Design in Practice' is an ensemble of projects that demonstrates how Norway's people-centred approach to design and architecture permeates life, business and society too.

Pakistan's installation 'Daalaan', is a collaboratively designed abstract 'playground' that breaks down social barriers and invites interaction between strangers.

Cadavre Exquis: an Anatomy of Utopia, a spatial version of the Surrealist game, playfully invites visitors to arrive at their own utopia through a series of decisive moves. 

An international team blends East, West, ancient and modern with Peach Blossom, a digital map that visitors can explore virtually and co-create by adding their own utopian thoughts.

Thirsty? This 'Water Machine' installation has a playful way of giving out water - for a price.   

'Otium and Acedia' celebrates liberation and playfulness as fitting statements of a country reborn from a convoluted, visceral history. 

The city of Santander already uses technology to improve urban life and the environment. 'VR POLIS, Diving into the Future' asks: what could it be capable of 100 years from now?

'Welcome to Weden' rethinks design and manufacturing on collaborative, artisanal grounds, inviting 15 designers and manufacturers to work together on different, more equal terms, assuming shared responsibility for both profits and costs.

Seven designers collaborate with seven specialist manufacturers for 'In-between: The Utopia of the Neutral' - a project that reflects upon the cultural identity, design tradition and exchange of knowledge.

'Eatopia' celebrates diversity in the pursuit of a utopian state, and offers visitors a unique culinary experience in a tranquil forest-like state.

Architect Chacha Atallah, working in collaboration with artist Haythem Zakaria, reflects on the fragile foundations of so-called utopias with the installation 'Pulse Diagram'. Composed of 54 pylons linked to each other by charred beams, created using an ancient Japanese technique that scorches the wood to extend its lifespan.

A vast system of planned irrigation once stretched across the Gulf, bringing water and vitality to desert communities. 'Al Falaj: Water Systems of the Gulf's Oases' shows how it could again be relevant to the UAE's rapidly globalising cities.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby's installation 'Forecast' moves with the wind, evoking the UK's nautical history and its future use of renewable energy. "Today, the UK is a world leader in offshore wind energy. Forecast is intended to reference this and highlight the opportunity for a more sustainable future."