'Open Monuments' at the Design Museum: A living landscape of interaction, performance and material encounter.

London Design Festival unveils 'Open Monuments' by Melek Zeynep Bulut - a series of monolithic urban forms.

Positioned in the Design Museum's courtyard, occupying a blurred boundary between installation and product, Open Monuments is a place for meeting, mindful reflection and rest, as well as an invitation to interact with the work itself. They are not simply objects to be seen, but rhythms to be felt.

Melek Zeynep Bulut is a London-based Turkish multidisciplinary artist and designer. Her practice synthesises space, experimental architecture, behavioural sciences, and visual arts. Employing multilingual production techniques encompassing sculpture, installation, photography and performance, she explores the complex interplay between material, experimental circulation fiction, and human consciousness.

Open Monunment's significance lies in its grounding - quite literally - in rammed earth. Each sculptural element is shaped from compacted layers of soil, one of the world’s oldest and most enduring construction techniques. The layering of the earth in these structures is a metaphor for honouring the passing of time and the building of collective memory, while simultaneously inviting the visitor to create a new language of the present through interaction.

The material’s powerful simplicity and natural texture encourages a slowing down, a building of a new imagination and the establishment of a deeper connection with the surrounding environment and oneself. The marks of interaction, the environment and movement will accumulate gradually, reinforcing the installation’s central idea of a living, evolving public space.

Composed from elemental geometries - the point, line, circle and square - they operate as quiet “performers” in the city. Their configuration shifts with the flows of people, behaviours and moods surrounding them, creating open-ended spatial choreographies that evolve over the duration of the festival. These components initiate open-ended staging, responding simultaneously to the needs of the visitor and the character of the city.

Following the success of the London Design Festival’s 23rd edition, which drew thousands of visitors to experience innovative design in the public realm, the Festival is excited to extend its public programming into this month.

Building on the impact of Landmark Projects 'What Nelson Sees' by Paul Cocksedge in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture at Trafalgar Square, and Beacon by Lee Broom supported by BROKIS and Materials Assemble at the Southbank Centre, which will continue to illuminate the South Bank until January 2026, LDF presents Open Monuments at the Design Museum until 14 December 2025.

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