Clerkenwell Design Week returns, this time with a bigger show

Clerkenwell Design Week has been one of the UK’s most prominent design festivals since its inception in 2009, lending brands an opportunity to showcase their latest products and for showrooms to achieve higher engagement of audiences. The printing and craft industries that have been intrinsic in Clerkenwell’s creative history have given way to a new identity for Clerkenwell Design Week 2022. Showing up in the design calendar after two years hiatus since the 2019 edition, the event the ready to entrance the viewers with latest designs, innovations and creative ideas, installations reminiscent of the fascinating history of Clerkenwell, as well as hundreds of design-led fringe events, popups, workshops, talks and showroom presentations lined up from 24th to 26th May, 2022.

Orticolario’s Delenimentum installation will be the protagonist in Charterhouse Square which has been included in this year’s CDW. An attention-grabbing addition to the show, it is a colossal version of the iconic Adirondack Chair created in 1903 by the designer Thomas Lee. Interspersed in both purpose-built and historical venues will be a total of nine exhibitions showcasing a blend of global leading brands and rising talent covering furniture, lighting, textiles, surfaces, accessories and product design. A part of the new festival location in Charterhouse Square is Covered, an exhibition highlighting interior surfaces and material innovation, sponsored by RAK Ceramics. Contract, also this edition’s novelty, allows visitors to view all that is new for commercial interiors. Clerkenwell’s subterranean House of Detention, will house Light + Rising Stars where emerging talent and leading lighting brands display their work together. Pop, the former cold store turned nightclub will be hosting brand activations and immersive experiences throughout the event days.

Continuing its collaboration with Scale Rule, CDW will unveil the NextGen Design Pavilion. The domed structure, mirroring a dismantled planet, celebrates sustainability by paying heed to human impact upon the earth and the responsibility humanity has to preserve it. Designed by Fieldwork Architects, the CDW 2022 talks space reinvents the classic Victorian bandstand as a place for gathering, discussion, entertainment and shelter. Additionally, the ‘BAUX House of Acoustics’ in Brewhouse Yard, an immersive sound experience by BAUX, will be a vivid installation displaying the capabilities of their new acoustic ceiling panels in holistic interior concepts.

Over the course of its editions, Clerkenwell Design Week has grown exponentially to become London’s creative hub. From its humble beginnings with less than 40 participating showrooms back in 2010 to over 115 confirmed for 2022 including Camira Fabrics, Duravit, Formica and VitrA among others, this year’s show is set to be the biggest and boldest yet. The showcases, each with a different curatorial focus, range from cutting edge international design, to emerging talent, lighting, luxury interior design and the best of international and British design. After two years of consequent absence due to the pandemic, the new edition of CDW is causing waves of enthusiasm and excitement among creatives all across the world.