- Port‘s design editor Alyn Griffiths talks us through the highlights of this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week..
The Farmiloe Building: photo by Phil VileFor the third successive year, Clerkenwell Design Week has transformed EC1 (home to Port and many of London’s leading creative agencies and design brands) into a bustling centre of design activity. Furniture and lighting companies with showrooms in the area opened their doors to the press and public, while a third venue was added to supplement the Farmiloe Building and the House of Detention, offering even an even wider selection of work by local and international designers alongside the usual packed programme of talks and workshops.
Many of this year’s highlights occurred away from the main venues, in pop up presentations or temporary installations. Aberrant Architecture’s Tiny Travelling Theatre attracted plenty of attention as it toured the area, hosting plays and storytelling performances for an intimate audience of between 2-6 people. Inspired by the tale of Clerkenwell coal salesman Thomas Britton, who transformed his home above a coal shed into a tiny theatre in the 17th century, the bright red structure featured protruding boxes that acted as stalls for the audience, coal skuttles on the roof to draw light into the interior and was towed to different locations around Clerkenwell by a VW camper van.
- Ross Lovegrove’s solar powered street light provided an attractive place to perch in the centre of St John’s Square, while an installation made from dozens of red and pink Fulton umbrellas supported by scaffolding poles by Draisci Studioinjected a bright hit of colour into the garden of St James’ Church.
Above: Draisci Studio’s Spring Forest instillation
Left: Solar Tree by Ross Lovegrove in St John’s Square: photo by Ashley Bingham
- The event’s nexus in the Farmiloe Building, a former merchants warehouse, hosted three floors packed with products from leading international brands such as Swedese, Artemide and BoConcept, as well as a retail area and a section dedicated to British companies. Here, furniture and interiors brand Assemblyroom presented the results of their recent collaboration with British fashion label Albam, including an attractive table and bench with tactile leather surfaces.
Right: Furniture by Assemblyroom and Albam
Renowned British designer Bethan Gray has teamed up with furniture developer Thomas Turner to launch a new collection under the moniker G&T, which focuses on premium materials and craftsmanship. The range of tables in all wood or wood with Italian marble tops draws on British heritage, taking inspiration from the three-legged tables made to combat the uneven slate floors common in the houses of traditional Welsh mining villages.
- The second venue at the House of Detention, a former jailhouse, again hosted up-and-coming designers and brands, such as new French label Singularité, who presented a capsule collection by designer Marie Dessuant, including a beech bench covered in a loose cotton mattress and cushions. The furniture is produced in limited editions and Singularité founder Eric Perez is working with several other French designers on new pieces that will continue the themes of ‘creativity, intuition and desire’ encapsulated in this initial collection.
Elsewhere among the grotto of cells and barred doors, design duo Custhom’s wallpapers, cushions, blankets and crockery combined geometric motifs with unexpected details like platinum printed patterns on fine bone china tea cups or cushions featuring boldly coloured prints on basic cotton base cloths. Nearby, London designers Don Herd and Guy Brownshowed a collection of locally made products, including ceramic pendant lights that were slip cast in Streatham and a range of folded anodised aluminium pendant and desk lights.
..Top: Ceramic pendant lights by Don Herd and Guy Brown Bottom: Bench from the Bay Collection by Marie Dessuant for Singularité - The new venue in the church and museum of the Order of St John offered a contrast between the cool cloisters of its basement crypt and the soaring space of the priory church. The crypt was dedicated to an engaging presentation of twelve chairs designed by Italian research centre Fabrica, that explored the different seating requirements of various scenarios and showcased the skills of regional furniture craftsmen, while in the church, a less cohesive collection of brands and products on display, including glass chandeliers from Vessel Gallery and conceptual Corian furniture from Rabih Hage. In such a grand space, it felt like more structure was needed in the presentation and ultimately, many of the pieces were lost against the spectacular backdrop.
Collective Works by Mischer TraxlerElsewhere, highlights included a gallery installation by award-winning designers Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler, who presented a machine that sensed when visitors were near it and began coiling a strip of veneer into a basket shape, while marker pens triggered by motion sensors inked out a pattern that represented the level of interest paid to its production.
The event coincided with the good weather that Londoners had been waiting a long time for and, with events and parties carrying on late into the night, the atmosphere was jovial and upbeat. Clerkenwell Design Week has established itself as a popular aside to the main European design shows throughout the year and, as long as it continues to provide a programme that delivers entertaining and interesting events, it looks set to keep growing.
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