CDW 2026: Circular design and the architecture of listening
This May, Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) will be marking its 15th anniversary in 2026. Across venues, streets and green spaces, the festival’s curated series of large-scale installations will challenge designers and visitors alike to reconsider how spaces are built, consumed, celebrated and experienced.
The event will focus on two themes: sustainability and sound. From recycled structures to circular product design, CDW 2026 will prioritise environmental responsibility in its programming.
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Photo by CDW
Sustainability and circularity
One of the festival's most striking Design Interventions, The Canary Clock Tower by George King Architects, is a tall sculptural landmark inspired by Clerkenwell's historic tradition of clockmaking.
Just as a clock makes time visible, this tower makes air quality visible by displaying real-time pollution data through analogue dials crafted from recycled plastic offcuts supplied by Smile Materials.
The structure itself embodies circularity: a lightweight frame of reclaimed scaffolding, a tactile timber base, and a fully recyclable outer skin. At the top of the tower, a caged canary weathervane turns with the wind: a quiet nod to the canary in the coal mine, and a call to consider the air we breathe every day.
After the festival, George King Architects will explore relocating the piece to a permanent public setting so its message can endure, with all plastic components returned to Smile materials for full recycling.
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Photo by George King Architects, courtesy of CDW
French designer Alexane Quenderff continues the theme of circularity with her five BinSight Benches, which are made entirely from waste materials considered too difficult to recycle.
Each bench is fitted with a QR code linking to an interactive quiz that challenges visitors to identify the waste materials used, turning a functional object into an education in circular thinking.
Showrooms across Clerkenwell reflect this trend with new launches throughout the festival. Progressive Australian/Indonesian furniture brand Reddie, launches its first European showroom, unveiling its collection of made-to-order chairs, desks, shelving and sofas crafted from reclaimed Indonesian teak salvaged from old railways and houses.
Swedish flooring brand Bolon introduces Back2Bolon, a take-back initiative that makes its flooring and rugs fully circular.
Products installed without permanent adhesive can be returned to Bolon's recycling plant, where materials are transformed into new floors and rugs, closing the loop from design to rebirth and significantly reducing CO₂ emissions compared to virgin production.
At Commercial Interiors on the Green, Edmund Bell presents Maverick, a recycled blackout fabric designed for hospitality, workplace and public sector interiors.
Manufactured from recycled yarns, it delivers reliable light exclusion, flame retardancy and a contemporary textured finish, proving that sustainability and specification performance are no longer in conflict.
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Photo by Edmund Bell
Architecture through listening
Alongside sustainability, CDW 2026 explores the theme of sound, from immersive community installations to award-winning acoustic workplace solutions.
Design Intervention Recreatura is an immersive, sound-led installation that invites visitors to reimagine architecture through listening. Using a binaural experience, they explore two historic sites in Clerkenwell through the voices, memories and soundscapes of residents, revealing the textures and stories embedded in the neighbourhood.
After listening, visitors respond by drawing on ceramic tiles, an important material in Clerkenwell’s architectural heritage, and placing them within a cube installation in Charterhouse Square.
The tiles gradually form a collective structure, transforming shared sounds and memories into an evolving architectural artwork.
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Photo by Recreatura, courtesy of CDW
At Commercial Design In the Park, German-Polish acoustic booth manufacturer BOX17 debuts at CDW with its new, award-winning Cube 1 Stand. Conceived to bring biophilic warmth to the modern workplace, its interior is lined with premium Italian wool felt, creating a calming and tactile environment.
Outside the entrance to Old Sessions House, The BAUX Floating Pavilion will demonstrate how acoustic design can shape both architecture and how we experience spaces by showcasing the Swedish brand’s new X-FELT Floating collection.
Showrooms and exhibitors across EC1 will be launching new lighting, furniture, fabrics and more throughout the three days of the festival, proving its status as one of the world’s premier platforms for design.
Clerkenwell Design Week PR
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