Next month, London’s Clerkenwell district will once again be transformed for this year’s edition of Clerkenwell Design Week. The global design festival’s 14th outing will take place between 20-22 May, and organisers say it will be their largest show yet.
CDW 2025 boasts three additional exhibition venues, including The Charterhouse and Charterhouse Square (set to host artist Alex Chinneck’s major new public artwork), as well as St Bartholomew the Great, the capital’s oldest parish church, and Studio Smithfield. The extra venues will form what the show’s organisers describe as a “vibrant and bustling new southern district for the festival”.
As always, the show will feature a lineup of curated events throughout the district of Clerkenwell across the week, with international exhibitors and products showcased across more than 16 venues and 160 design showrooms.
“We’re thrilled to be back in Clerkenwell this May with our largest programme yet, both in scale and content,” says Marlon Cera-Marle, design division director at Media 10, the organiser of CDW.
“The new venues, including some of London’s most historic landmarks, will provide a stunning backdrop for presenting some of the world’s most exciting design brands. We’re also partnering with incredible international names, from country pavilions to leading media outlets from the UK and US.” Cera-Marle adds, “This year, we’re especially excited to announce one of our headline features: a surreal public artwork by the acclaimed British artist Alex Chinneck. As one of the most attended specification events on the A&D calendar, CDW 2025 will once again serve as a platform for discovering new trends, talent and ideas.”
In addition to its showrooms, the show’s official talks series, Conversations at Clerkenwell, is returning for 2025, taking place in a theatre designed by London-based design studio Kapitza. Curated by PR and brand consultant Katie Richardson, the series will include conversations with leading and emerging designers, and as always, will cover the topics of the day, with the full programme available on the event’s website.
The showrooms
The Clerkenwell district is home to the showrooms of many high-profile tile manufacturers and suppliers. Top names in specification such as Solus and Domus, along with some of the world’s most prestigious manufacturers, like Marazzi and RAK, have collectively invested tens of millions at their stunning locations in the area. It is in these showrooms that CDW really takes place, with companies always invariably taking the opportunity to put their best foot forward while the streets are flooded with A&D professionals.
One such brand taking part in this year’s event is Atlas Concorde, an Italian surface manufacturer which is described as one of the “leading players in the global ceramic sector”. This year, the company is using its showroom to promote a systematic approach, with three separate, interlinked brands occupying the space. “The mother brand, ‘Atlas Concorde’ offers a system of interior and exterior surfaces for floors, walls, and decorations; Atlas Plan the brand of large slabs for kitchen countertops, tables and for furnishings; the furniture brand Atlas Concorde Habitat exploring furniture in combination with Atlas Concorde surfaces.”
Iris Ceramica Group is another Italian manufacturer that has made a permanent base of operations in Clerkenwell, and though it is only one showroom, the group actually represents some seven distinct brands, including both porcelain and stone suppliers. According to the company, Iris Ceramica has “always been driven by a strong pioneering spirit and attention to environmental sustainability”.
Having opened its showroom just last year, Mirage, another Italian tile manufacturer, will once again participate in CDW in 2025. Last year, the company used its showroom to promote the Nagomi range, a collaborative effort between Mirage and architect Hadi Teherani. According to the company: “Nagomi, which symbolises balance and serenity in Japanese, celebrates a reflective design, oriented towards the creation of spaces that harmoniously coexist with their environmental context.”
As always, Parkside Architectural Tiles will host visitors to the festival at its showroom on Sekforde Street. This UK-based firm describes itself as a “contemporary porcelain, ceramic and natural stone tile specification company with over 20,000 commercial tiles on offer, including many exclusives, from some of the world’s most dynamic manufacturers”. The company supplies tiles for commercial, hospitality and even high-end residential projects, and offers additional bespoke services such as waterjet cutting, porcelain worktop fabrication and digital printing onto tiles.
VitrA, a Turkish manufacturer of both tiles and bathroom furnishings, will participate in the show from its location on Turnmill Street, just a short walk from Farringdon station. The impressive showroom spans some 5,600sqft across two floors, showcasing a multi-product approach to building a full bathroom or kitchen.
The names listed above are just a few of the highlight showrooms at Clerkenwell Design Week, with many more companies taking part in the festivities, including manufacturers of ancillary products such as Schlüter Systems and Mapei. In addition, several Italian tile manufacturers that don’t have permanent showrooms in Clerkenwell will be showcased via an initiative set up by the Italian Trade Association. Returning to St. John’s Square for 2025, the Italian Pavillion will “present an inspiring display of design and craftsmanship – showcasing a range of ceramic and porcelain tiles,” says Ceramics of Italy.
Structural stone revolution
As we’ve heard in recent months from the likes of The Stone Federation and The Stone Collective, a major frontier in the UK stone sector involves the use of stone in structural applications. Tapping into this trend for 2025, British stone suppliers Albion Stone and Hutton Stone have commissioned Hawkins\Brown and Webb Yates to design a new installation for this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week. Brick from a Stone: Arch Revival is a follow-up to the companies’ feature at last year’s CDW (simply titled, Brick from a Stone), and is once again designed to demonstrate the material’s “strength and beauty”. The piece comprises a pair of freestanding vaulted arches measuring almost four metres tall, with one arch formed from sandstone bricks in various hues from Hutton Stone’s quarries, and the other using Heritage Portland Stone bricks from Albion Stone’s mine in Dorset.
According to the company’s, each arch will be elegantly crafted from a single layer of stone bricks, measuring 102mm thickness, demonstrating the material’s “versatility as a load-bearing architectural product”.
One major advantage of the structural stone approach is eliminating the waste caused by stone deselection. Hutton and Albion Stone have committed to using stone bricks made from “unloved stone” for this project, described as blocks that have already been quarried and removed from the ground but which were not selected for projects owing to their geological characteristics.
Hawkins\Brown reportedly designed the two arches to sit together as one sculptural pavilion, creating what the company describes as a dialogue between the two arches through form and texture.
“We associate stone with robust and weighty constructions but these arches are made up of incredibly thin building blocks. These bricks reveal the strength inherent in the material itself,” said founding partner Roger Hawkins. “The installation is a testament to design and engineering and it asks us to reconsider ancient techniques for the 21st century.”
“As well as the considerable carbon saving from using stone in place of fired clay bricks, we wanted to make the point that form (the shape of buildings), is often forgotten as a tool to lower embodied carbon. In this case the subtle change from a semi-circular arch to a hyperbolic arch halved the wall thickness” said Steve Webb, director of Webb Yates.
“Although unnecessary for the final structure, the arch is lightly reinforced to allow it to be fabricated at the quarry and delivered to site in a single piece showing the material’s suitability for prefabrication and off-site manufacture,” he added.
Whether your primary interest is in ceramic tiles, natural stone, or any other material for architectural projects, Clerkenwell Design Week 2025 is set to be as entertaining and valuable an experience as always. This year’s edition takes place between 20-22 of May, with free registration available on the event website.
www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com
