Clerkenwell Design Week will return for its 11th edition to East London’s creative district from 24-26 May.

Since making its debut back in 2009, Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) has provided a platform for brands to showcase their products and 100+ showrooms to open their doors to new audiences. For 2022, the show’s identity has been inspired by the printing and craft industries that form part of the district’s creative history. As such, the CDW branding combines several typefaces, from traditional serif fonts that reference publishing and the old printing press to contemporary display faces with a geometric and architectural quality.

Excitement is building around CDW 2022 and its return to the design calendar since the pre-pandemic 2019 edition, which welcomed 34,185 attendees and over 300+ exhibiting brands including Established & Sons, which debuted works from designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Konstanin Grcic; Stellar Works, which launched the Crawford Collection by Australian designer Tom Fereday; and Thonet, which celebrated 100 years of Bauhaus with new interpretations of side tables by iconic architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

This year CDW’s festival route has been extended to include Charterhouse Square, which will see Orticolario’s Delenimentum installation taking centrestage. The gigantic version of the legendary Adirondack Chair – created in 1903 by the designer Thomas Lee – is a playful and photo-worthy addition to the festival.

Visitors can expect to see the latest designs, innovations and creative ideas, plus installations celebrating the history of Clerkenwell and pop-ups, workshops, talks and showroom presentations. CDW will once again host a series of talks in Spa Fields by leading designers and architects tackling topical and newsworthy issues.

Across EC1, nine exhibitions in both purpose built and historical venues will showcase a mix of brands and emerging talent covering furniture, lighting, textiles, surfaces, accessories and product design from around the world. New for 2022 is CoveredSponsored by RAK Ceramics, an exhibition dedicated to interior surfaces and material innovation that forms part of a new festival location in Farrindgon’s Charterhouse Square.

Also new for 2022 is Contract, home to the products for commercial interiors. Clerkenwell’s subterranean House of Detention – previously a prison in the mid-19th century – will showcase Light + Rising Stars, where new and upcoming designers will exhibit alongside international lighting brands. And Pop, the former cold store turned nightclub, will host brand activations and immersive experiences throughout the festival.

CDW Presents

Each year, CDW Presents showcases commissioned, site-specific street spectacles across Clerkenwell. In a partnership that has spanned five years, CDW will once again collaborate with Scale Rule to present the NextGen Design Pavilion. This year’s design concept for the NextGen pavilion exemplifies human impact upon the earth and mankind’s responsibility to protect and shape it for better, a highly topical issue.

The domed structure created by Scale Rule  will illustrate a deconstructed planet, which is formed, fractured and reconfigured from natural materials including timber geometric segments. The pavilion celebrates sustainability through its modular production methods, recycled materials and future reuse, encouraging people to socialise within its bounds, making use of and leaving their positive trace upon the structure.

Another highlight of the show, Conversations at Clerkenwell, will return to Spa Fields with a specially designed venue by Fieldwork Architects. The concept for the talks space reimagines the traditional Victorian bandstand as a focal point within the park. 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 therefore been inverted within a solid cube, focusing attention and sound on the speaker via a centrally located geodesic formed dome and circular seating below.

Additionally, acoustic panels manufacturer Baux will create an immersive sound experience named the Baux House of Acoustics in Brewhouse Yard. Designed by its co-founders and studio Form us With Love, the installation will display the versatile capabilities of their new acoustic ceiling panels in holistic interior concepts. The space will be open to all, demonstrating acoustic properties with talks and live music.

Billi UK will be supplying drinking water with water taps located throughout Clerkenwell – visitors can bring their own bottles and fill up – a sustainable nod to the traditional Clerk’s Well that gave the area its name.

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Stay tuned for our round-up of showrooms and exhibitors to look out for at Clerkenwell Design Week, coming soon…