This week, Clerkenwell will be London’s centre of creativity. Clerkenwell Design Week 2013 will host 60 showrooms, a large number of manufacturers with new projects and designs, with special guests, designers and architects. For three days, all showrooms in the area will open their doors and host lots of exhibitions, workshops, debates and parties that we’re very much looking forward to.
Here are some highlight of our partners and events which we’ll follow…
Humanscale will open the first festival day with some “Bright Ideas in Lighting” at 8.30am. This talk will be presented by Shane Cohen, Humanscale’s Global Director of Lighting. Visitors will discover how dual- source office lighting schemes can boost worker comfort and productivity while promoting energy-and-cost-savings. This session promises to explore why single component lighting schemes are inefficient, ineffective and costly, and what you can do to eliminate these pitfalls. Also, from 13:00 on Tuesday, Humanscale will present Eclipse, a new interactive light installation by Cinimod Studio. The installation, designed by lighting artist Dominic Harris, is inspired by the design ethos of Humanscale, and in particular their focus on task lighting and in particular the importance of providing localised lighting to suit individual employee needs.
CDW2012
Poltrona Frau will have Demonstrations on Tuesday starting 10:30. Master craftsmen demonstrations at the Poltrona Frau Group showroom of the traditional manufacturing processes behind iconic products such as the Chester and Vanity Fair armchairs.
Interstuhl will be showing four new and exciting product families: EVERYis1- an entry level mesh task chair, VINTAGEis5- a new conferencing and meeting chair range, KINETICis5 – a product family that includes a bar stool, bistro table and a perch & PIOS-2- redesigned conference and meeting room cantilever chair with 3D mesh. Interstuhl‘s workshop is called “This chair is perfect for me, I can’t see what’s wrong with it!” and it will try to tackle the age old misconception of chair development and the benefit of usability trials. Levent Caglar will argue the case that without appropriately devised and executed usability trials, any furniture item in particular seating, is doomed to fail.
Wilkahn has come up with an exciting “Architectural tour of Clerkenwell”. The fortunes of Clerkenwell have fluctuated throughout the ages, through medieval riots, the reign of Mary Tudor (when Smithfield reeked to the stench of burning protestants), to the gentrification of the Georgian period. Followed by the poverty of the early nineteenth century and through to the industrialisation of the late Victorian age when it became a place of foundries and watch making. The tour will include Clerkenwell’s history, written in the hidden lanes, streets and many interesting buildings.
At 15:00 on Tuesday, Orangebox presents Workplace Habitat, an ‘under the skin’ report into the current UK workplace and six key industries that populate our nation. With Nathan Hurley.
Vitra’s showroom will become a hub of social media and work solutions. Creating a Citizen Office in its gallery at 30 Clerkenwell Road, the space will offer a place where visitors can work, relax, chat, host interviews, file copy and test out various work, meet and retreat. Also, Vitra and We Blog Design will host a talk on the effective use of social media. A panel of bloggers, journalists and businesses which harness social media has been put together to share their social media secrets.
Alcove Cabin // Vitra
Howe will be hosting “Keeping it Simple” – a presentation from Skyline designer Morten Nikolajsen on his philosophy and design process.
Kusch+Co presents an art exhibition by British-born artist Kristian von Hornsleth. During the week Kusch+Co will exhibit Hornsleth’s brand new light box portraits of Brazilian fashion models. Hornsleth’s artistic idea is to contemplate the new self-confident Brazil represented by these young hopeful faces, all represented by Kee Mod agency in Sao Paulo.
Sedus will have a Competition: “Find our Sheep”. We’re very curious to see what that is about… Also, see some new products in the showroom for the first time: ‘Place 2.5’ and ‘Sweet Spot’.
Ahrend will be displaying and judging the ‘Art by Architects and Designers’ competition.
The Boss Design Group will be Celebrating 30 Years of Design with an exhibition. To mark this anniversary, Boss will be showcasing an exhibition of signature pieces from the last 30 years from Delphi launched in 1983 to the brand new Soft Office Collection.
Elite has put its presentations under the title “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory” competition. Elite will be launching the new i-sit task chair and new Leola multipurpose chair.
Sofa Collection // Knoll
Knoll will have a UK launch showroom party for the Barber Osgerby sofa and new Knoll collections. Also, on Wednesday evening you can join them for a conversation with Max Fraser and Jay Osgerby.
