Reflection from London Design Festival 2025 : Sacred Grounds: Three Days of Slow Design

Over a late September weekend, Sacred Grounds unfolded quietly inside Paradox Design + Coffee at Netil Market, as part of this year’s London Design Festival. The air was threaded with the scent of freshly ground beans and cut paper, the faint hum of conversation, and the soft crackle of scissors meeting texture.

It was, in essence, an experiment in slowing down in finding stillness through making. The café’s narrow container was divided into two halves: the front, alive with the rhythm of espresso shots and greetings; the back, transformed into a space of reflection and creative encounter. Together, they became a small ecosystem of community, where design and everyday life intertwined.

Guests were invited to pause, sip, and imagine what a mosque or community space might feel like if it were shaped not by function alone, but by emotion by the quiet, unspoken human needs of safety, healing, and belonging.

Over three days, people cut, stitched, sketched, and recorded. Pages from magazines became mosaics of arches and domes; fabric scraps were threaded through makeshift looms; voices were captured in short reflections stories told in the brief language of texture, colour, and sound. Each gesture, however small, joined the Slow Design Wall: a growing installation that by Sunday evening had become a patchwork of memory, possibility, and shared imagination.

On the ground, Mirna, Sarah, and Ridwan welcomed visitors, gently guiding conversations and inviting participation. For some, it was a first encounter with mosque design as a language of emotion; for others, a moment to reconnect with what makes communal spaces sacred, not the walls, but the care they hold.

Three Days, Three Invitations

The event was guided by a simple principle: form follows feeling.

Each day carried a prompt, an open invitation to reflect on how emotion might shape architecture and community design:

• Day One: Designing from Feeling – What might a mosque shaped by calm or healing look like?
• Day Two: Designing for Agency – If this space were yours, what would it hold?
• Day Three: Designing with Futures – What will future generations thank us for a garden, a library, a place to play?

By the final day, the Slow Design Wall stood complete, a tapestry of collages, weaves, words, and drawings that spoke of what community could be when built from care.

The Collaboration

The partnership with Paradox Design + Coffee was more than logistical; it was a creative dialogue. Zain and Katherine, the café’s founders, became co-designers in the process. Together with Mimbar360, they built a bespoke table for the second room, mosque-arch drawing boards, and the wooden frame that held the final installation together.

Their special festival blend filled the air with scent and warmth, grounding the experience in something deeply sensory. Around the tables, people lingered longer than planned, speaking softly, sketching, weaving, and reflecting.

Every detail carried intention: Mimbar360’s small round badges, the arrangement of materials in trays, the rhythm of sound that wove through the space. The pop-up became a living conversation between touch and thought, between design and devotion.

Behind the Scenes with Paradox Design + Coffee

Owners Zain and Katherine spoke with us about what it means to design a space that invites belonging and connection.

On designing for connection

Zain: When we set out to design our café, we wanted to create intimacy. The unit is only twenty feet long and every inch has to serve a purpose. We had to think carefully about how people move, sit, and meet. We didn’t want to overwhelm the senses with heavy design just enough to create connection, between people and between us and our customers.

Katherine: We wanted it to feel like one continuous space. When we expanded into the second half of the container, we finally started to see how both sides could breathe together, how light could flow through, and how people could feel at ease. It’s about making room for solitude within togetherness.

Zain: We also have a no-laptop policy, which changes everything. It encourages people to talk, to notice each other. From behind the bar, we see those quiet connections, someone picking up a book, or having conversations.

On texture, light, and materials

Katherine: It was important to me that the space felt soft and welcoming. That’s why I chose pink. The colour came from a room I saw at the Somerset Biennial two years ago. It made me feel immediately calm. It took some convincing to paint the café pink, but it’s done exactly what we hoped: it holds the light beautifully and creates a sense of ease.

On inspiration and reflection

Zain: When we work with other cafés, we talk about warmth. There’s a trend toward cold, stainless-steel minimalism, clean but distant. We encourage owners to bring in natural materials, especially wood. It immediately softens the experience and makes people stay longer.

Katherine: I find inspiration in nature in the way light moves across a surface, the rhythm of shadow, the texture of stone or wood. Photography helps me see those small moments, and I try to translate them into space. I try to recreate the room the way a photograph holds memory and colors.

A Note on Reflection

Projects like Sacred Grounds remind us that design is not only an act of creation, but of attention. It’s about noticing what already exists, the light, the gestures, the people and creating space for them to belong.

As Mimbar360 continues to explore how mosque and community design can nurture wellbeing, this collaboration stands as both a prototype and a promise: that design can begin with feeling, and that every shared space can be an act of empathy.

Next year, we return to London Design Festival 2026 with a new theme:

Developing Citizen Designers: Agency & Imagination

It will continue this journey exploring how creativity can belong to everyone, and how every person can become a designer of the world they wish to live in.

Credits

Hosted at: Paradox Design + Coffee, Netil Market

Presented by: Mimbar360 CIC

In collaboration with: Zain & Katherine, Paradox Design + Coffee

Dates: 19–21 September 2025

Photography: Sarah Daoudi

Part of: London Design Festival 2025