The fourth annual Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) will welcome over 150 designers and manufacturers from Britain and across the globe, as they showcase their latest designs against the extraordinary backdrop of historic Clerkenwell. With an enhanced format including increased exhibition spaces, an array of curated projects and a rolling programme of talks and seminars from leading design experts, the three-day festival is firmly established as one of the most influential and innovative events on the international design calendar.
In addition to the fifty-strong community of furniture showrooms, CDW’s exhibition venues represent centuries of the area’s history. The Farmiloe Building, a former Victorian merchants warehouse, will play host to high-profile international brands; The House of Detention, a subterranean Victorian prison, will form the festival’s hotspot for new designers, and the 12th century crypt and charming garden of the Priory of the Order of St John, will act as the hub for interior decoration trends.
Showrooms
Clerkenwell stalwarts, Knoll, will be celebrating their 75th Anniversary, while another festival veteran, Vitra, will be looking to the future with a series of blogger workshops, and an in conversation with Ronan Bouroullec as part of the Talks with 100% Design programme. The stunning Domus Tiles showroom on Great Sutton Street will play host to Patricia Urquiola and her new tile range Azulej.
CDW also welcomes newcomers to the area including Brintons Carpets, which holds one of the world’s largest pattern archives. Their dedicated archivist, Yvonne Smith, will be curating an exhibition of some of the company’s most treasured pieces. Dating back to 1790 and containing over 100,000 custom designs and hand-painted sketches, the archive includes original artwork from William Morris’s company (Morris & Co), hand painted designs from Voysey and Lewis F Day, and works from Matisse, Robin Day, Pugin and Owen Jones. Brintons will also host a talk at their newly refurbished showroom with their most recent collaborators, design studio Timorous Beasties.
Fabric innovators Camira and Danish carpet manufacturer Ege have come together in a unique collaboration, at a new showroom in Britton Street. Keen to encourage new design talents, Camira will also showcase their most recent collaboration with RCA graduate Emma Shipley, who has created a gorilla-inspired fabric entitled Titus and Tangled. Printed onto blazer felted wool fabric, Titus and Tangled takes inspiration from Emma’s fine art drawings of silverback gorillas. A series of talks on this project will complete Camira’s offering during the festival. Camira is a world-leading producer of innovative "bast fibre" fabrics, made from nettles and hemp grown on UK farms.
Commissions and Installations
CDW is renowned for its installations and cultural projects, which bring the district to life with inspirational creative thinking.
Internationally acclaimed lighting designer Sharon Marston will create a unique one-off installation in the loggia entrance of the Priory of the Order of St John. A magical installation will envelope the space in a dazzling torrent of hand crafted woven brass mesh and fibre optic filaments, characteristic of Marston’s stunning chandeliers.
This year, CDW will also host the UK’s second Design Exquis. Following the success of last year’s edition at the London Design Festival, the 2013 project will feature four (undisclosed) designers from very different disciplines. Conceived by French designer Florian Dussopt and Belgian journalist and curator Géraldine Vessière, the installation is based on the 'Cadavre Exquis' (Exquisite Corpse) technique, developed by the Surrealists in the 1920s. In a chain of interpretation, each designer will create a product based on the previous participant’s final design. None of the designers is aware of the starting object (selected by the curators) nor the identity of the other participants. An exhibition in the Museum of the Order of St John will bring the final products together; the narrative process behind each object displayed in a series of blackboards accompanying the objects, giving insight in the designers’ minds.
You can look back at past exhibitions and events at Clerkenwell Design Week, as well as find out more details about what's to come in 2013 on Clerkenwell Design Week's website or Twitter @Clerkenwell2013
