Talks Programme, Installations and Event Highlights at Clerkenwell Design Week 2022
24 – 26 May 2022
May 2022, London: Clerkenwell Design Week returns to EC1 for its eleventh edition across the 24th – 26th May, with more exhibitors, showrooms, and venues than ever before. CDW is the UK’s leading independent design festival, providing a welcome platform for brands to showcase their products and for the 140+ showrooms to open their doors to new audiences.
Visitors can expect to see the latest designs, innovations and creative ideas, as well as experiencing hundreds of design-led fringe events, pop-ups, workshops, and showroom presentations, along with the stimulating talks programme – Conversations at Clerkenwell.
CONVERSATIONS AT CLERKENWELL
Conversations at Clerkenwell is a series of daily talks which seek to explore a broad range of topics, drawing upon insight and opinion from creatives, business leaders and both established and emerging designers. Always underpinned by the issues of the day, the diverse sessions encompass trends, opinions, and presentations from a wide selection of creative disciplines and design-led sectors. The programme for 2022 is curated by Katie Richardson and hosted in an auditorium sponsored by Equitone.
Conversations at Clerkenwell opens this year with leading British Designer Tom Dixon in conversation with journalist Bethan Ryder, setting the tone for 3 days of insightful, engaging, and colourful conversations.
Tying in with the grand opening of the Elizabeth Line next week, CDW are excited to have Jorrin ten Have from Grimshaw – the lead architecture practice for the line – opening Thursday’s day of talks. Have will present an architectural overview of the project, with a focus on its line wide design identity.
Further highlights include ‘Queer Spaces’ – queer people have always found ways to exist and be together, and there will always be a need for Queer Spaces. Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell, alongside contributors to their recent title for RIBA Books, share examples of such spaces in a discussion on LGBTQIA+ life, past and present.
‘When Digital Met Physical’ - an expert panel of Liam Hamill of Venturethree, Caroline Jacob, Aoife Challis and Tim Smith of NewTerritory explore how the Metaverse could shift in the future from being an escapist realm, to impacting on our daily lives and discuss what role design will play. Jonas Pettersson, co-founder of Swedish design studio Form Us with Love will discuss the studio’s recent projects and how ‘problems’ are always the starting point of their work, which focuses primarily on improving the lives of people and the planet.
‘Materials Matter’, a discussion on responsible design and the importance of materials, in the fight towards a circular and sustainable future featuring Sean Sutcliffe of Benchmark, Nicole Meier of UltraFabrics, Fredrik Franzon of BAUX and chaired by Roddy Clark, journalist for The FT and Forbes.
Supported by Axalta’s forecasting publication Vibes, ‘Axalta: Building Colour’ willexplore colour trends in architecture, with a closer look at how palette and texture are impacted within the built environment featuring Cath Carver of Colour Your City, Armor Gutierrez Rivas of Atelier La Juntana, Dami Babalola of Axalta and chaired by curator, Eva Woode.
Conversations at Clerkenwell has always been a highlight of the show, with a specially designed venue in Spa Fields. Designed by Fieldwork Architects, the concept for the CDW 2022 talks space reimagines the traditional Victorian bandstand as a focal point within the park, a place for gathering, discussion, entertainment and shelter. Rather than a traditional forward facing seating arrangement, the nature of the bandstand form allows the focus point to be partially in the round and engage the audience as a discussion, rather than a presentation. As a place for debate, the talks space is required to be both inward and outward looking. The mass of the bandstand has been inverted within a solid cube, focussing attention and sound on the speaker via a centrally located geodesic formed dome and circular seating below. There will also be daily yoga taking place on the bandstand from 9am – 10am – no booking required.
The full talks programme and schedule can be found here: https://www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com/conversations-at-clerkenwell
INSTALLATIONS
Interface’s installation at Clerkenwell Design Week takes you on a visual journey of the company’s history – from petroleum-intensive flooring manufacturer to global leader in climate conscious design and manufacture. Situated within St John’s Arch, a stone's throw away from Interface’s new showroom in Pennybank Chambers, the installation takes the form of a vortex made from the 100% recycled econyl yarn used in Interface’s carpet tiles.
Multidisciplinary artist, Lois O’Hara will be designing CDW’s wayfinding to help visitors navigate around the event. Lois will also be collaborating with OnOffice magazine to design exterior murals for a series of installations ‘OnOffice Curates’, which will feature across EC1. Lois will also be working with Duffy London to produce a special swing-table, which will feature as one of the installations at the show.
Award-winning sustainable acoustic designers BAUX will host the global launch of its first ever ceiling product within ‘BAUX Acoustic Lounge’ at Old Sessions House for CDW. The ‘Acoustic Lounge’ is a low climate-impacted installation, designed by BAUX CO-Founders, Form Us With Love, together with BAUX Creative Director Johan Ronnestam. BAUX will invite visitors to experience the benefits of sound absorption in the curated space which will host music and content across the three days. Visitors are encouraged to relax, work, listen to music and explore the products - within a stunning, acoustic-led environment.
Over in Clerkenwell Close, NVBL Architects are presenting the installation Shelter. The London based office wanted to transform the Close into a public square to encourage social and cultural conversation whilst introducing minimal materiality. Returning to basic principles of architecture and the primary structure of shelter, the installation offers a delicate intervention with no disruption to the site, shaping a space where people can sit and gather. The temporary shelter is made of three elements: An inflatable, biodegradable TPU roof sits on a primary structural frame which is anchored down with off-cuts of stone. To respond to the temporality of the pavilion, the structure can be easily assembled & dismantled, and all materials are re-usable & recyclable.
Acoustic’s specialists Texaa will be presenting two acoustic spaces allowing visitors to understand more about the impact of architecture in acoustics through a sound experience that demonstrates how sound influences our perception of space. Texaa’s experts are also hosting a series of special events designed to explore the fundamental importance of acoustics in architecture – including a Classical Coffee every morning and Soul Sound Session every afternoon.
OnOffice magazine will also be collaborating on another installation during CDW with plant and biophilic design specialist, Plant Designs. The project, titled Plant.Nurture.Bloom explores the importance of planting within urban working environments. The immersive installation will create a jungle oasis within the bustling heart of the city for visitors to take a moment of calm and restoration by sitting within the leafiness and reflecting on the wealth of benefits that nature brings to modern life. The concept of green offices is on the rise and it’s not hard to see why, with the average person spending a third of their life at work, it’s more important than ever that we ensure our offices are an environment of positivity and inspiration. Plant Designs will also be hosting workshops and demonstrations across the week including exploring how to incorporate biophilia and greenery in the workplace, and how to make a kokodama display.
BVN Architecture and Second Home will also collaborate during CDW. The concept of their installation, WorkPOP, supports the notion work-from-anywhere and experimentation towards pop-up, iterative, workspaces. Visitors are encouraged to experience work, collaboration, discussion and entertainment outside of the traditional boundaries of work + place.WorkPOP features recycled materials and is designed to be modular. WorkPOP also has a circular lifespan and will relocate to the rooftop of Second Home’s workspace in London Fields after CDW, where it will support events and knowledge work for its creative community. During CDW, WorkPOP will host a daily happy hour will also be hosted following a series of curated talks.
FRINGE EVENTS
The CDW Fringe programme offers a multitude of events, from exhibitions and talks to installations and workshops as local businesses open their doors to CDW visitors. Carrying on Clerkenwell’s long history of making, EC1 is packed with cutting-edge architects to traditional craftspeople.
London Metropolitan Archives, which holds an archive of London’s history dating from 1067, will host Magnificent Maps of London during CDW. This free exhibition explores London's history in maps and includes a unique opportunity to see the first surviving map of the city, showing London in the 1560s.
The recently restored London landmark, Old Sessions House will soon have a private work club, which launches this summer. Led by one of the local team, visitors can attend a 30-minute tour of The Old Sessions House and Work Club membership concept.
Curated eyewear company, Cult Vision will share Yair Neuman's designs from DELEREX™ as part of the Fringe programme. Focusing on the theme of vision, Yair's DELEREX™ range includes lights and eyewear frames made entirely from discarded lenses from the eyewear industry.
Fedrigoni Paper are to host a free, interactive daily workshop introducing the creative benefits and application of foiling. The workshop will allow you to design and create your own artwork, then frame it using their new Pop-Up Frame kits.
Demonstrations and a workshop by members of The House of Upcycling will be taking place within POP on the mezzanine above dancefloor 1 in fabric London. These include a gilding demonstration by Jo Edge of Reclaimed & Reloved, a decoupage workshop by Kata Roberts of Studio Twentyseven, and Fabric to Flora, a demonstration by Tracey Horan of Dolly Fixtures. Booking is not required for the events.
SHOWROOM EVENTS
Wellness is a theme within fringe events - Ultrafabrics will be hosting Guided Meditation sessions, a create-your-own custom Herbal Tea Blending Session and a talk on the rising phenomenon of ASMR and engaging our senses through art and design in collaboration with the Design Museum andDisegno. Flokk are hosting a Wellbeing Series, including Breathwork with Aicha McKenzie to help relieve stress, manage anxiety and improve mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
Andreu World will host a talk in their showroom on Tuesday 24th May with Alfredo Häberli, discussing Giro Soft, a modular seating system for connecting spaces – a new launch for CDW – in conversation with Jessica-Christin OnOffice Magazine. Japanese bathroom experts, TOTO, will be hosting a talk to celebrate their new exhibition with a leading panel of experts from the world of architecture and design.Katie Treggiden will be opening a keynote with Ceramiche Ceasar focusing on the circular economy. Humanscale will also be hosting a number of talks focusing on sustainability, wellbeing and design across the three days, including Mad About the House founder Kate Watson-Smyth hosting a panel on sustainable design for the home.
Modular furniture specialists, USM will present a special installation to celebrate their World of Plants series, which enables users to be surrounded by greenery. USM will do its bit to encourage people to ditch their cars in favour of two wheels as it plays host to a special bike by Berlin-based bike brand Standert. USM’s showroom will showcase a workshop trolley and shelving unit displaying all the tools needed to make and maintain a Standert cycle while the bike itself will be prominently displayed on a green USM Haller podium. To celebrate this collaboration, USM will be giving away special wooden bicycle allen keys tool kit to the first 50 visitors to the showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week. Those in need of a bit of TLC for their trusted two-wheeler will also be able to drop in for a bike check upby the service team from Look Mum no Hands in the showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week.
KI, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of workplace and education furniture, will revive its highly successful ‘KI House’ concept during CDW 2022. The pop-up showroom at the landmark Paxton Locher House on Clerkenwell Green will be transformed to convey the theme of ‘renew, reinvent, revitalise’. KI’s latest workspace products will be displayed in striking finishes and enhanced with a bold floral installation by McQueens Flowers to emphasise the theme. The space will also host a variety of activities including seminars and workshops in partnership with Vectorworks, InnerSpace, The Myers-Briggs Company, SpaceZero, Dark Sugars Chocolates and more. The space will be open daily, with food and beverages available all day, with a Greenwich Gin ‘Happy Hour’ between 16:00-18:00. KI House will also be the launch site for the ‘Clerkenwell Dinosaur Hunt’ - created by British artist Jay Jay Burridge, this neon light sculpture will make its Clerkenwell debut at CDW2022 - the first stop on its tour around the neighbourhood over the course of the year.
-Ends-
Judith Fereday
Chloe Boucouvalas