Design brands set to debut new products at Clerkenwell Design Week

Czech artist David Černý brings history and high-tech production to London with a special variation of his Butterfly Effectinstallation at the Atelier Bohemia showroom, brought over by Czech Centre London and CzechTrade. The installation commemorates Czech RAF fighters during the Second World War through cutting-edge 3D printing pioneered by Prague-based Prusa Research, telling an old story using new tools.

Lighting brands are launching new products that nod to the past at CDW this year. Minale’s 2SHADES portable table lamp and wall light, and 4SHADES pendant light have been recreated from Marcello Minale’s 1969 sketches for Gucci; Bianca, Barbara and Brigitte fringed lampshades from Tinker & Tallulah channel 70s fashion brand Biba; the Lugg light collection by Fritz Fryer favours robust British engineering from yesteryear over mass-produced disposability; and Richard Weaver Metalsmith showcases complex, bespoke architectural pieces that draw on traditional craftsmanship. Award-winning textile and wallcovering company The Monkey Puzzle Tree has printed nostalgic scenes from the Yorkshire countryside onto real cork wallpaper called Up Hill Down Dale; and the new JAKU table designed by Peter Fehrentz for more sports a sculptural base shaped by traditional, handcrafted ceramic elements.

Back in March, AHEC (American Hardwood Export Council) launched a competition to design the trophies for the CDW Awards using cherry wood. Winner Henry Marks designed a sculptural, interlocking piece that responds to the natural qualities of cherry wood rather than forcing it into a predetermined form, showcasing the potential of timber construction. Tom Raffield continues the theme with a new collection of lights – Luna Chandelier, Bloom Pendant and Wake Wall Light – crafted from sustainably sourced wood from the Cornish coast, and Szymon Pasierb presents sculptures hand-tooled from reclaimed oak with chisel, handsaw and plane in the Future Talent venue.

Office furniture is moving past hot-desking into sensory and acoustic design. SPACEMANN launches its Class A acoustic-certified pod system Odyssey, and 2020 Furniture Design presents its acoustic furniture system SOMA which is built explicitly to accommodate neurodiversity and avoid sensory overload in open-plan offices. Karndean extends the wellbeing agenda into commercial flooring with its expanded Opus collection which has built-in slip resistance and a calm, biophilic palette designed for hospitality, workplace, education and later-living settings.

Almost every soft-seating and meeting launch is modular. The Linka segmented sofa by Polish furniture manufacturer .mdd is segmented so it can easily be reconfigured. Yorkshire-based Hawk Furniture introduces its modular Manhattan sofa and its Apex Canopy workstation which is fitted with durable castors so it can be effortlessly moved without heavy lifting. The new Flight Desk by Workbench treats meeting tables as modular architecture, doubling as a table for fine dining and a meeting desk with a bank of power and connectivity components than can pop up or even be replaced as technology evolves. The Aztec meeting table from Mobili Office Ltd scales from a single table format to accommodate up to four people with adjustable desk heights.