"Each one of the apexes pointing towards the Seven Dials monument used to house a pub and the pub cellars used to be connected with vaults and underground tunnels to create handy escapes should the need arise," says Gschwendtner. "I was very interested in taking that escape overground and creating an aerial escape across the street."

Her configuration of seven ladders connected haphazardly above the road was inspired by cat ladders and fire escapes on buildings.

Dezeen commissioned seven young designers to create seven installations to hang above the streets of Covent Garden during last year's London Design Festival, and Gschwendtner's Aerial Escape installation was located on Earlham Street.

Movies we've already published from this series include Faye Toogood talking through her installation of 49 worker's coats and Dominic Wilcox describing why he chose to string up a row of bird cages.

Gitta Gschwendtner also contributed a special edition from her Bodge Bench series to Dezeen's Stepney Green Design Collection - watch her talk about the project here.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

The music featured in the movie is a song called Blue Sapphire by Remote Scenes. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.

See all our stories about design by Gitta Gschwendtner »
See all more about Seven Designers for Seven Dials »
See all our coverage of London Design Festival 2012 »

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across the road" - Gitta Gschwendtner appeared first on Dezeen.

Gschwendtner is originally from Germany but has been living in London for over 20 years and has worked from her studio in Hackney, east London, for 12 years.

She worked outdoors using rustic wood-crafting methods to create the two-seater bench from her Bodge series, and the one-off three-seater bench for the collection is based on this design.

"Bodging is a very traditional chair-making technique where you use green timbers and no electricity, working in the woods with hand lathes and axes," explains Gschwendtner.

The Bodge series also features a two-seater and six-seater bench, as well as a single chair, all made using the same technique in a similar style. The other pieces are all made from oak but this special-edition bench has been crafted out of English olive ash.

The Stepney Green Design Collection consists of 10 products selected by Marcus Fairs of Dezeen from creatives who live near to VIVO, a new housing development in the east London district. The project also includes objects chosen by east London bloggers Pete Stean of Londoneer and Kate Antoniou of Run Riot.

The collection is on show at the Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, Whitechapel, London E1 4UJ, from 10am to 10pm every day until January. After this, the objects will be given to VIVO residents.

See all the items in the Stepney Green Design Collection here and watch the movies we’ve featured so far here. The music featured in the movies is by American designer and musician Glen Lib. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.

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- Gitta Gschwendtner appeared first on Dezeen.

Structures by young designers Faye Toogood, Vic Lee, Paul Cocksedge, Philippe Malouin, Aberrant Architecture, Gitta Gschwendtner and Dominic Wilcox are installed above the streets of the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden, London.

There are little exhibits on each one at our pop-up shop Dezeen Super Store at 38 Monmouth Street, where you can still get 10% off any Dezeen Super Store purchase (excluding sale stock and Jambox) and enter our competition to win a designer watch worth £150 by downloading this flyer and presenting it at the shop.

Dezeen has also put together a free map to chart all the events at this year's London Design Festival. Explore the large map here.

The Seven Designers for Seven Dials installations will be in place until 5 October and Dezeen Super Store is open until 30 September.

See all our stories about the London Design Festival here.

Above: 7 x 7 by Faye Toogood - hanging high above the heads of passers-by on Monmouth Street, Faye Toogood’s installation is a series of 49 outsized workers’ overcoats, representing the different trades within Seven Dials that have shaped the area over the years.

Above: Aerial Escape by Gitta Gschwendtner - German-born designer Gitta Gschwendtner has also taken inspiration from the area’s slum history, when each of the seven apexes facing the Seven Dials monument housed pubs linked by underground escape tunnels. In Gschwendtner’s installation, seven interconnected ladders link two windows either side of Earlham Street to seemingly provide an escape route across the road and beyond.

Above: The Birds of Seven Dials by Dominic Wilcox - London designer Dominic Wilcox has created an arch across Neal Street made out of empty bird cages, symbolising Charles Dickens’s description of Seven Dials as a place full of bird shops. Each cage is left open to symbolise the memory of the bird shops and birds long departed from the street.

Above: Catchpenny Quackery by Aberrant Architecture - Aberrant Architecture’s installation consists of 18 large metallic coins hanging above the street. Each coin features a unique symbol that advertises one of the bogus products and services that used to be offered by quack doctors in the Seven Dials area in years gone by.

Above: Bunting by Philippe Malouin - Philippe Malouin has erected a giant installation of bunting made from transparent PVC to celebrate and highlight the Seven Dials area and its landmarks. Blown by the wind, the sixty bunting lines point the way to the Seven Dials monument.

Above: Illustrations by Vic Lee - London-based illustrator Vic Lee has created a series of flags that draw on the shady history of the Seven Dials area. The illustrations incorporate the old street names during the 17th and 18th centuries, a time when Seven Dials was a slum famous for its gin shops.

Above: Dial by Paul Cocksedge - Paul Cocksedge has suspended a mysterious interactive installation called Dial, consisting simply of a large floating telephone number suspended between two buildings. Only those curious members of the public tempted to call the number will discover its secret.

Photographs are by Mark Cocksedge.

Dezeen's London Design Festival map

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The map above is taken from Dezeen's guide to the London Design Festival, which lists all the events going on across the city this week. We'll be updating it over the coming days with extra information on our highlights so keep checking back. Explore the larger version of this map here.

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Seeds of Change is a floating garden on a disused concrete grain barge containing a variety of plants not native to Britain.

Raised beds line each side of the garden and an elevated central path disguises the raised opening where grain was once loaded into the barge.

Through her research into old shipping routes, Alves discovered that ships returning from ports around the world would fill their hulls with earth and stones to stay weighed down on their return journey.

Once back in Britain, the earth – which contained seeds – was offloaded into the river. Alves discovered that if the riverbed were excavated, the dormant seeds could be regerminated to grow into plants.

Inspired by this possibility, Alves and Gschwendtner designed a garden full of the types of plants that might once have had their seeds dumped in the river below.

"Some of the plants are very familiar to us now, like marigold or rocket, but did not exist in Britain prior to shipping trade," Gschwendtner told Dezeen.

Gschwendtner is also taking part in Seven Designers for Seven Dials, an aerial installation in Covent Garden curated by Dezeen that will be on show throughout London Design Festival, which takes place between 14–23 September.

The designer is also making a one-off three-seater version of her Bodge Bench for the Stepney Green Design Collection curated by Dezeen.

See all stories about Gitta Gschwendtner »
See all stories about gardens »

Photographs are by Max McClure.

Here's some more information from the designer and artist:

‘Seeds of Change’ is a floating garden; the result of a collaboration between the designer Gitta Gschwendtner and the artist Maria Thereza Alves.

The title ‘Seeds of Change' stems from an ongoing ballast seed garden project from Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves. Between 1680 and the early 1900s, ships' ballast - earth, stones and gravel from trade boats from all over the world used to weigh down the vessel as it docked - was offloaded into the river at Bristol. This ballast contained the seeds of plants from wherever the ship had sailed. Maria Thereza Alves discovered that these ballast seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years, but that by excavating the river bed, it is possible to germinate and grow these seeds into flourishing plants.

Working with the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, Arnolfini and Bristol City Council and utilising a disused grain barge, Gschwendtner and Alves have created a Ballast Seed Garden on Bristol’s Floating Harbour, populated with a variety of non-native plants, creating a living history of the city’s trade and maritime past. Gitta Gschwendtner's design for the ballast seed garden aims to give the visitor an opportunity to experience the garden from various levels and perspectives. The raised bed structure with its sunken paths and seating areas immerses the visitor into the garden, while the elevated central area allows an overview of the entire ballast seed garden as well as its unique position on a floating barge.

The architecture of the garden works with the structural constraints of the concrete barge; the elevated section in the centre conceals and covers the raised aperture where grains were originally loaded into the barge. Sustainability is an important aspect of the project's objective. Both the garden's irrigation system - pumped straight from the river - and lighting are powered by solar panels, and the construction material used is sustainable pine treated with an environmentally friendly oil stain to soften the pine's appearance and preserve it from weathering.

Location: Floating Harbour (north side) between Bristol Bridge and Castle Park Water Taxi stops. Visible from Castle Park. Access by appointment

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The bench will be made from a single piece of wood supported by equally spaced legs, with seat backs arranged at various angles along its length similar to the six-seater version (above).

Chairs and benches in the Bodge range are usually made from oak (above and below), however this unique piece will be made from olive ash.

Dezeen has been commissioned to curate a collection of products designed by east London creatives that live near to new housing development VIVO and we will be publishing more designs as they are added to the collection during the next month.

The designs will be on show as part of a collection of 30 works of art, fashion, sculpture and furniture celebrating local talent that will be exhibited at the Genesis Cinema in October and then donated to the VIVO residents - find out more here.

See all our stories about Gitta Gschwendtner »

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for the Stepney Green Design Collection appeared first on Dezeen.