CLERKENWELL
DESIGN WEEK
24 - 26 May 2016. New Masterplan for Festival Announced
T
he seventh edition of
Clerkenwell Design
Week (CDW) promises
to be the best and most
ambitious yet, as new
locations, brands and installations
join this vibrant festival in one of
London’s most idiosyncratic and
creative quarters. In a first for the
festival, organisers have appointed
architecture practice OMMX to create
a strategic masterplan for the event.
The plan marks a significant point in
CDW’s development, with the format
expanding to eight exhibition venues,
a gateway destination to Clerkenwell’s
showrooms, an installation trail and a
brand new destination at Spa Fields.
Clerkenwell Design Week, sponsored
by Renault, will take place 24 – 26 May
2016 across Clerkenwell.
STRATEGIC MASTERPLAN
The new, integrated approach to
planning the festival across both
the temporary (exhibitions and
installations) and the permanent
(showrooms and fringe) will improve
the flow and navigation around the
many and varied elements, creating a
compelling experience for the visitor
as they explore all that Clerkenwell has
to offer. OMMX, an emerging practice
based in Clerkenwell, has developed
a plan based on an understanding
of context and experiential quality.
OMMX’s work on the Clerkenwell
Design Week masterplan will help
build a cohesive story as the festival
expands and develops. Hikaru Nissanke
and Jon Lopez, Directors
of OMMX, said:
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‘We have worked collaboratively to
realise an ambitious and exciting
new chapter in CDW’s history. We are
grateful for the organiser’s enlightened
approach in continuing to commission
young practitioners, their desire to
make a lasting contribution and to
make design more accessible in this
critical part of creative London.’
NEW VENUES AND EXHIBITIONS
New sites and structures will provide
enhanced possibilities for exhibitions
and programming; Design Fields,
a large-scale curated exhibition of
contemporary design, will be set in
a specially constructed two-floor
pavilion at Spa Fields, near the
exceptional Clerkenwell destination of
Exmouth Market. Design Fields is set