Appropriately, in a building which used to be the headquarters of the P&O Oriental Steam Navigation Company near Trafalgar Square, with its the mahogany-panelled shipping hall which is now part of the Brazilian Embassy, the best of contemporary Brazilian furniture design is on display during the London Design Festival, complimenting the old mahogany with new natural and sustainable timbers and celebrating the Brazilian tradition for modernism, the largest outpouring of which was possibly the new capital of Brasilia, planned and designed by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, astonishingly over 60 years ago.

The furniture designs show the best of the modernist tradition, being beautifully elegant, timeless and without fuss, while celebrating the natural characteristics of the timbers and other materials of which they are made.  These are chairs, tables and other items of furniture to both admire and to sit in.

What is really impressive, and to the credit of the organisers, about this show is the number of talented female designers who have been given the opportunities to show their work: – in this Brazil seems to be ahead of many other countries, including possibly the UK.