Sanctum Opening Night — Collectible Design at Raleigh Chapel
About this Event
*Free ticket required — please register in advance. Limited capacity.
PROTOPIA COLLECTIVE PRESENTS SANCTUM — A collectible design exhibition at Raleigh Chapel and Tokoro London, running during London Design Festival 2026
Raleigh Chapel: 11–14 September 2026
Tokoro London: 16–19 September 2026
Protopia Collective presents Sanctum, a two-venue exhibition of collectible design opening at Raleigh Chapel before extending to an intimate, invite-only presentation at Tokoro London, running during London Design Festival 2026.
Sanctum takes its name from the Latin for a sacred, set-apart place — an idea that finds an Estonian counterpart in hiis, the tradition of a sacred natural grove, spring, or stone left untouched and held communally sacred, where the land itself was trusted to carry memory and offering. The exhibition draws on that same instinct, treating the exhibition space as a threshold rather than a neutral backdrop for objects.
Across the works on show, material becomes a way of continuing that idea: lime drawn from stone, hemp grown and retted by hand, clay shaped by pressure and time, bronze cast through heat and transformation, glass reclaimed and reformed. Each piece arrives carrying a history before a single hand touches it — the land it was taken from, the labour it required, the seasons it waited through. That inherited weight becomes a starting point rather than a constraint, and the resulting objects sit between function and relic, between the domestic and the devotional — forms made to be lived with rather than simply viewed.
Protopia Collective's designers are joined by newly invited artists and designers, presenting new and recent work side by side — bronze beside clay, glass beside cork, with a spatial sonic layer moving quietly between them. What holds the show together is not a shared material or a shared origin, but a shared instinct: that craft is a way of remembering what a place has given, and giving something back in return.
Curated by Heiter X
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Designers: Daniele Giannetti, Erik Merisalu, Fenna Kosfeld, Heiter X, Kollektiir, Niki Danai
With: Daanius Aas, Equivalentbehaviour, Johann Kööp, Jojo & Me, Katrina Stamatopoulos, Martyn Riley
SONICS
Martyn Riley excavates from global frequencies; an ever-shifting auditory presence weaves near and distant extractions into an original, generative haven within the vaulted walls. The continuous and the unseen envelops the space in a protective yet unfamiliar warmth, inviting minds to inhabit alternative dimensions of comfort rooted in the hidden memory of vibration.
VENUES
Chapter I — Raleigh Chapel 138 Church Walk, London N16 8QQ
Exhibition open: Fri–Mon, 11–14 September, 11:00–19:00
Opening: Fri, 11 September, 19:00–22:00 [ticket required]
Chapter II — Tokoro London, 16–19 September The exhibition moves to Tokoro London showroom, by appointment, with a studio event on 19 September.
ABOUT PROTOPIA COLLECTIVE
Protopia Collective is a collaborative design community founded in 2024, bringing together designers and artists working across collectible furniture, sculptural objects, and material research.
@protopia.collective
ABOUT HEITER X
Heiter X works across altars and elemental forms — pieces that sit between object and ritual, made from raw, natural materials rooted in ancestral memory and Estonia's sacred groves. With a background in landscape architecture and food design, Heiter X approaches objects as spatial and ecological systems, working across exhibitions, commissions, and site-specific projects worldwide. In 2024, she founded Protopia Collective with the aim of bringing together like-minded designers to create cohesive shows centred on natural materials.
@heiter_x
ABOUT RALEIGH CHAPEL
Raleigh Chapel is a functioning Victorian church in Stoke Newington, North East London, with a programme guided by sound, art, and faith. Designed by architect John Sulman and consecrated in 1880, the building was originally conceived as both a chapel and civic hall, and has weathered continual change over the following century, including bombing during the Blitz and a devastating fire in 1989 that left only the outer walls standing, their bricks still marked by smoke and flame today. Recently reopened following a renovation by interior designer Jermaine Gallacher, the chapel spans 3,000 sq ft across two floors — a 1,300 sq ft ground floor and a 1,700 sq ft first floor with a vaulted, gable-roof ceiling reaching 9m — pairing original Victorian brickwork and period detail with newly installed lighting.
@raleighchapel
PRESS
For press enquiries, imagery, or interview requests, please contact: [email protected]
More information: protopiacollective.com
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