Zieta Studio and Panu Jurek Studio brought Polish innnovation to Material Matters London

Polish design practices Zieta Studio and Pani Jurek Studio presented air-sculpted steel and colour-shifting ceramics at Material Matters London, alongside a panel discussion on Polish creativity at the fair's new Shoreditch home.

For its fifth London edition, Material Matters London opened at its new home, UNLOCKED, in the heart of Shoreditch Design Week (SDW), from 15–17 September 2026 as part of the London Design Festival.

Zieta Studio and Pani Jurek Studio joined over 40 exhibitors, each selected for their commitment to material intelligence. Supprte by the Creative Industries Institute and the Polish Cultural Institute in London in collaboration with On&On Designs, the two installations brought the work of these Polish studios to Shoreditch, exploring materiality and Polish creativity.

Inflated Steel and Modular Ceramic Installations

Placed at the fair's entrance lobby, the ‘Whispers Bench’ offered arriving visitors a moment of pause. Architect and designer Oskar Zięta is known internationally for FiDU, a process of free internal deformation that 'inflates' flat steel into complex structural forms, the technique used across the pieces.

The bench is an element from the public sculpture Whispers, sited at Ludgate Hill in London's Fleet Street Quarter, and was first shown at the London Festival of Architecture 2025.

"These forms emerge from a dialogue with the material and its internal forces, balancing a 'controlled loss of control' at a specific point of creation," says Oskar Zięta, head of Zieta Studio. "Whispers began as a public sculpture, and at Material Matters it becomes something more intimate; a bench, a resting point, a place to pause inside the same structural language as you enter the fair."

Warsaw-based Pani Jurek Studio, run by Magda Jurek and Michał Borecki, occupied the centre of the upper floor gallery at Material Matters with the ‘OP Ceramic Modular System’ from the OP Object collection. Composed of ceramic tiles that rotate around their own axes, the interactive structure became a living composition that responded to visitors, exploring how light creates colour and shifts the relationships between colours. The piece was created especially for the ‘Common Ground: Curated Connections’ exhibition at Fletcher Priest Architects as part of the London Festival of Architecture, June 2026. 

"The OP objects are a tribute to colour, its ability to surprise, transform and delight and a way to shed light," say Magda Jurek and Michał Borecki of Pani Jurek Studio. "Ceramics have a long tradition in Poland, and we wanted to show how playful and alive it can still feel. Seeing London's design community interact with the pieces was a wonderful way to share that."

As part of the Café Conversations series with thought leadership partner Berghaus, Agata Zięta of Zieta Studio and Michał Borecki of Pani Jurek Studio joined Samta Nadeem, Curatorial Director at STIR, for a discussion on process-led making and material intelligence in Polish design, chaired by Grant Gibson, founder of Material Matters.

"Presenting Zieta Studio and Pani Jurek Studio at Material Matters allowed London's design community to engage with both studios in real depth. We look forward to these important conversations around Polish design and creativity, as part of the 'Curated Connections' series, continuing across the UK creative community," say Anka Simone and Joanna Caron-Delion, Founders, On&On Designs. 

"Material Matters gave two very different Polish studios a stage in front of an international audience. We are delighted with the response to their work within Shoreditch Design Week, and proud to have helped bring it to London. Moments like this build lasting connections between Polish creatives and the UK design community, which is at the heart of what we do," says Anna Tryc-Bromley, Polish Cultural Institute in London. 

Collectively, Zieta Studio and Pani Jurek Studio showed how Polish designers are redefining material intelligence, from air-sculpted steel to colour-shifting ceramics. Their work highlighted the depth of experimentation and craft that continues to place Poland at the forefront of international design.

Polish design continues in Mayfair.

'Curated Connections' by On&On Designs continues in Mayfair Design District, where Reflections with Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, featuring Aneta Kocia, Magdalena Zarychta and Zieta Studio ( until January27) and Blueprint at MINT Gallery presenting Mati Sipiora, Formsophy and Tomek Rygalik.

Photos by Alka Murat.