Fusion Exhibition

Fusion is an exhibition of the industrial design work that Billings Jackson Design undertook for Grimshaw throughout the 1990s.

Conceived by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw as a travelling exhibition, the team exploited the fact that flight cases that would be needed to ship the exhibits by customising them to also act as the display cases. In this way, Fusion could be simply rolled into a space, arranged, opened and plugged in.

The premise of the exhibition was to demonstrate the design process that is so important to both Billings Jackson and Grimshaw. For both, it is the appreciation of starting from first principles rather than applying a style that defines their work and as such, the exhibition follows the journey from concept to prototype to product.

The exhibition celebrates a commitment to detail and manufacturing by deliberately removing the objects on display from context – and often orientation. This forces the observer to reconsider the elements on show, encouraging people to put more thought into the everyday surroundings of the built environment.

Designed to appeal to a broad audience, beyond the construction industry professionals and manufacturers inevitably engaged, the exhibition toured twelve venues across Europe in little more than a year. The flight cases were subsequently put into production as a travelling exhibition system by Mabeg, and Zumtobel, the Swiss lighting company brought in to develop the lighting solution, went on to become a key client for Billings Jackson.