Clerkenwell Design Week: Preview in the Crypt

Last week at St James’ Church Crypt on the Green, Clerkenwell Design Week Director, William Knight, unveiled some of the innovative projects and exhibitors that will contribute towards the festival in May 2014.

Clerkenwell Design Week returns to London for it’s fifth edition 20 – 22 May 2014. Further establishing a platform that celebrates and facilitates interaction amongst top end designers and architects in the neighbourhood, which is internationally renowned for it’s creative output.

Protypes for the new ‘Twigs’ cushion collection by Toghal

Last week at St James’ Church Crypt on the Green, the newly appointed Show Director, William Knight, unveiled some of the projects and exhibitors that will contribute towards the festival. The inviting space with vaulted red brick ceiling and up-lit columns will itself house Additions; a new curated section, sponsored by Spanish online magazine and design store Triitme and featuring textiles, small design items and home accessories from around 20 artisan brands. Printed fabrics, cushions and lampshades by Toghal are inspired by the textile heritage of Africa and their new zingy colourways of ethnic patterns pack a joyously bold, bright punch. Tori Murphy offers fun animal skin throws and cushions in rosy shades, woven and finished in England and Urbanara will offer a selection of their stylish and quality home textiles in an array of natural materials.

Malana bedspread by Urbanara

With over 50 British and international brands with premises in the area enjoying strong relationships with the event, there is no shortage of Showroom Partners contributing. Amongst them are Brinton Carpets who will launch their patented ‘High Definition Weave’ collections which enable the production of photo realistic carpets. They will also present the Deep Grid rug by Christian Zuzunaga and run a series of presentations on topics such as rug designing for the electronic jacquard looms and their archive collection of Japanese Katagami stencils. Camira will introduce new fibre fabrics of nettle and flax and an up-cycled woven upholstery fabric. Meanwhile Loophouse will show their new ‘Pop Alchemy’ collection of hand-tufted rugs in Detail at the Order of St John.

Deep Grid Rug by Cristian Zuzunaga for Brinton Carpets

Colour expert and weaver Ptolemy Mann partners with Johnson Tiles to create a three-wall mural for their new Prismatics wall tile collection at The Design Factory in the Farmiloe Building. Another tile based collaboration that promises a dramatic, temporary installation is the Tile Mile project by London based design collaborative Russ + Henshaw in association with Turkishceramics which represents over 30 individual ceramics companies. Occupying the iconic Clerkenwell landmark of St John’s Gate, a juxtaposition of tiled floor and parallel mirror formations will produce an infinite decorative pathway reminiscent of the Basilica Cistern, Istanbul. This is one of three projects in the CDW Presents series which aim to push the boundaries of design in terms of concepts, process and material capabilities. Studio Weave and Okay Studio will also contribute.

The Design Museum, London celebrates it’s 25^th anniversary in 2014 and will host a series of forward looking talks asking leading designers and architects “what next?”.

Design for ‘Tile Mile’ project by Russ + Henshaw in partnership with Turkishceramics