Stay Playful – When No One Feels Like Playing by 2LG Studio – Photo Sam Frost, courtesy of Clerkenwell Design Week 2024.

Design–Archipanic is a media partner of Clerkenwell Design Week 2024, which takes over streets, showrooms, and even a former prison from May 21-23. Clerkenwell is one of London’s districts with the highest concentration of architecture and design studios. Check out our design path at the neighbourhood-wide festival and explore it!

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about Clerkenwell Design Week 2024 on Archipanic.

Gate Keepers by Duffy London & Orsi Orban.

Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead celebrate the tenth anniversary of their 2LG Studio with the installation Stay Playful (When No One Feels Like Playing). Inspired by Cluroe’s early days working at a fairground in the Black Country Living Museum and Whitehead’s childhood fascination with kitsch ornaments from his grandmother’s home, the duo has breathed new life into a vintage helter-skelter in Spa Fields [Map].

Stay Playful – When No One Feels Like Playing by 2LG Studio – Photo Sam Frost.

Visit the Possible Impossible Pavilion, a brand-new pink installation by Peter Morris Architects in partnership with Build-Lite that explores ideas around possibility and impossibility [Map]. The installation is made from ultra-light polystyrene-based imitation stone, which can be hot wire-cut into any shape.

Possible Impossible Pavilion by Peter Morris Architects and Build-Lite.

Architecture studio Artefact has created a temporary shelter by using ‘unloved’ stone bricks that have a quarter of the carbon footprint of traditional clay-fired bricks. Named Brick from a Stone and located between two red phone boxes at Clerkenwell Green, the 3m-high installation consists of 6 pillars made from slabs of “unloved” limestone and sandstone with superficial inconsistencies that make them unsuitable for typical applications, [Map].

Brick From A Stone by Albion Stone, Hutton Stone & Artefact – Photo by Ivan Jones.

Local architecture and interior design studio Jestico + Whiles teamed up with its neighbouring showroom of Bolon, a smart woven vinyl flooring manufacturer with more than an eye on sustainability, to create the PLUS light installation taking over their shared courtyard at Sutton Yard in the heart of Clerkenwell. The striking design is complemented by lighting from Studio Fractal and Architainment, [Map].

PLUS light installation by Jestico + Whiles & Bolon – Photo by Jestico + Whiles.

Duffy London teamed up with Berlin-based surface designer Orsi Orban to transform the historic St John’s Gate of the Order of St John with Gatekeepers, an installation of organic sculptures crafted to evoke a dynamic sense of movement, as though poised to spring to life [Map].

Gate Keepers by Duffy London & Orsi Orban – Photo by Sam Frost.

The British Collection exhibition at St. James’s Church features local designers [Map]. Granite + Smoke, in collaboration with Roger Oates Design, introduces hand-tufted rugs crafted from 100% British-blend wool, James UK revives traditional Windsor chair-making with contemporary aesthetics, while Ercol unveils new furniture manufactured in Britain. SCP launches a low-lying sculptural Peonia armchair by Wilkinson and Rivera made from 100% sustainable materials from Norfolk, UK.

Brutalist rugs by Roger Oates Design x Granite + Smoke – courtesy of Clerkenwell Design Week 2024.

Furniture manufacturer Benchmark has tasked B.A. Product and Furniture Design students from London Metropolitan University to reimagine discarded objects salvaged from the streets of London. Using offcuts sourced from Benchmark’s workshop in Berkshire, students repurposed these objects and transformed them into various items, including footwear, a side table, a book stand and a wall-leaning light, to name a few.

05. Benchmark furniture at Clerkenwell Design Week 2024 – Photo by Sam Frost.

The Light exhibition at the former House of Detention [Map] features a brand-new collection of rechargeable designs by Pooky Lighting and a biophilic, feathered lamp by Coldharbour Light. Brighton-based designer Tabitha Bargh presents a lighting collection made from waste estate agent advertising boards made from Correx, a typically unsustainable and non-biodegradable polypropylene.

06. Poly Lights by Tabitha Bargh at Clerkenwell Design Week 2024 – Courtesy of CDW.

At the House of Detention, London-based artist Ben Cullen Williams captivates visitors with Grid System. This audiovisual installation delves into the impact of the simple grid on our physical spaces, lives, and day-to-day existence. The evolving light installation maps grids onto the viewer, making them part of the artwork.

Grid System by Ben Cullen Williams – Photo by Ben Cullen Williams.

At 70 Cowcross Street [Map], Platform is home to emerging design talent and brands. Selfish Customs teamed up with East Anglia manufacturers to repurpose farming by-products such as raw fleece, reed and barley straw. Colombian art historian-turned-designer Manuela Cabrales presents shawls, trousers and handcrafted lamps using materials like lotus fibre and orange peels. Also featured is Barcelona-based Isabel Francoy’s La Sobremesa collection, which blends wicker weaving and glassblowing with modern design.

La Sobremesa Collection by Isabel Francoy – Photo by Angie Couple.

Stone Federation, the trade association for the natural stone industry, teamed up with Squire & Partners, Webb Yates Engineers, and The Stonemasonry Company to create Stone Tapestry, an urban natural stone installation made from British stones from Albion Stone, Britannicus Stone, Dunhouse Quarry, Hutton Stone, and Tradstocks.

Stone Tapestry by Stone Federation and Squire and Partners – Photo by James Balston.

All images are courtesy of by Clerkenwell Design Week 2024.