May’s Clerkenwell Design Week will see an expanded awards, new venues and a series of large-scale installations across the area as the London event celebrates its 15th edition.
The 19-21 May event will see the CDW Awards celebrate the the disruptors, dreamers and doers of design alongside the best new products and innovations. The site-specific, interactive installations will appear in the parks, streets and green spaces of Clerkenwell, as well as in the festival’s venues. Many of these pop-up structures will provide a place to sit, reflect and connect with others while exploring structural and material concepts.
Haberdashers’ Hall, will be a new addition to CDW’s venues. Known as The Luxury Edit during the show, this new venue will be hosting the CDW Awards ceremony on 19 May, presented in partnership with Design Milk. Following the debut last year, the awards will once again celebrate furniture, lighting, materials and interior solutions that are shaping the future of design. New categories will focus on the individuals, teams and ideas challenging conventions and celebrating the creatives driving design forward today.
As well as being home to a cluster of high-end Italian design brands, The Luxury Edit will host the Design Meets talks series featuring industry bodies, leading brands and industry experts.
A ‘living’ outdoor installation, The Pulse of Becoming, will animate the space outside The Luxury Edit. This Design Intervention, created by recent graduates Musab Umair, Amruta Ramesh Pullawar and Sharath Binu John, explores the cyclical nature of death, rebirth and life. Chia seeds embedded in two opposing crescent shells will sprout during the festival, turning bare surfaces green.
The Museum of the Order of St John above St John’s Gate (originally built in 1504) is one of the great hidden historical treasures of London and is another new venue for the festival. The atmospheric space will be the temporary home to Interiors From Spain, produced by Disegno.
Material Source Studio, which showcases products and materials for architects, interior designers and property professionals, and Workplace on the Square outside The Zetter hotel, a platform for design brands catering to offices, are two new additions to CDW’s range of venues for 2026. Office design brands will also be exhibiting at Workplace at Goldsmiths’ at The Goldsmiths’ Centre which returns as a festival venue this year.
St Bartholomew the Great (pictured) once again becomes the Church of Design, this year’s venue for the coveted Conversations at Clerkenwell programme curated by PR and brand consultant Katie Richardson, which will include discussions with leading and emerging designers on topical subjects. Dulux, this year’s sponsor for Conversations at Clerkenwell, is launching a student-focused competition to design the backdrop of the talks stage using a palette of on-trend colours.
Roche Bobois, Dedon and Magis are among the brands exhibiting at the Church of Design, and Confleunce, a monumental origami-inspired installation by Fung+Bedford, will be suspended from the ceiling of the 900-year-old Grade I listed medieval church.
The House of Detention returns as the host of Light, showcasing a selection of lighting brands. Visitors will be greeted at the entrance with Loom Light, a 3D-printed light sculpture drawing on the optical language of Op Art, designed by MIMStudios, AI Build and SEAM Design. [d]arc thoughts, a series of talks curated by [d]arc media, also returns.
Hundreds of showroom partners are an essential part of the 15th Clerkenwell Design Week as they host product launches, talks and workshops. Participating showrooms include Actiu, Andreu World, Boss Design, Camira, Domus, Hay, Hansgrohe, Herman Miller, Humanscale, J Adams & Co, Knoll, Muuto, Milliken, Modus, Iris, Knoll, Tarkett and Cosentino.
