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Clerkenwell Design Week will return for its eighth edition on 23-25 May, with yet another showcase of the very best homegrown and international design talent. After a successful show remodel last year, this design calendar highlight is set to play an even greater role in London’s creative industry. The events in 2017 will work on bringing even more quality design to the fore and further refining visitor experience, including specially designed wayfinding from Spaceagency and several bold installations throughout Clerkenwell. Here are some of installations that will be on display.
The Beacon
A colourful and immersive new installation, the Beacon will serve as the perfect celebration of all that Clerkenwell has to offer. The eye-catching, 7.5m structure was inspired by the Tower of Babel and will be located at the entrance to Design Fields. An internal staircase is encased within a vibrant typographical design in celebration of internationalism. Visitors can climb up the stairs to a viewing platform that overlooks a cross-section of the district where industrial and historical Clerkenwell meet.
Order
Creative build specialist Aldworth James & Bond has pushed boundaries with its feature installation, Order at St John’s Gate, involving component-based digital fabrication and handcrafted joinery techniques. Order will be made of 145 700mm Corian octagons, which have been inspired by the Cross of St John. These connect in nine sections, forming a structure of almost 3m in height and over 5m in length.
The ethereal form, which will champion the arch as a gateway to the festival, was inspired by writer Anthony Powell’s description of visiting the Charterhouse, another historic Clerkenwell building: “I went under an arch… it was like moving into the Fourth Dimension, several centuries back in Time, everything round but completely still, like a dream.” The geometric beauty of the four-dimensional tesseract form aims to recreate Powell’s
otherworldly experience.
Sectum Spectra
Interdisciplinary artist Jordan Söderberg Mills will take over the ground floor of the Keep, Clerkenwell London’s enclosed structure, at the Design Undefined exhibition space, transforming the space into a new version of his Sectum Spectra installation. The immersive cube of colour and reflection uses anaglyphic mirror panels to create stereoscopic reflections, that blur boundaries between the subject and their surroundings.
Clerkenwell Design Week takes place from 23 to 25 May 2017
Local and international talent compete to create dramatic spectacles this year
