Clerkenwell Design Week Show, London May 2022-UK

The furniture industry is a rapidly-changing world, and the Clerkenwell Design Week  Show featured a wide range of new products from furniture makers and designers from around the globe. Judging by all the new products on display, most manufacturers had spent much of the past three years working with in-house and external design teams, designing and developing new creations. The stimulus was a combination of firstly, the demands of new, post-pandemic working practices and secondly, endeavouring to meet clients’ demands for manufacturers to use more sustainable materials and processes.

Boss Design, one of the UK’s leading supplier of office furniture,  showcased a range of new products at this year’s Furniture Show. A Slovenian seating company, Donar, used recycled felt to produce their Red Dot award-winning Nico Less chair designed by Niko Kralj. It is available in a range of colors and uses 100% biodegradable and compo-stable thermo polymer shell.

Andreu World from Barcelona presented a number of new chairs from designer Piergiorgio Cazzaniga including the ash wood framed Liceo available in a range of colors and Nuez Lounge Bio designed by Patricia Urquiola with its 100% biodegradeable and compostable thermopolymer shell.

Humascale is a furniture company that’s made it their mission to reduce the negative impact of the furniture industry on the environment. Their latest product, the Path task chair, is made using 4.5kg of ocean plastics and follows their philosophy of being self-adjustable based on the weight of the user. The company claims that, based on the materials used to make it and its manufacturing processes, the chair provides a positive environmental benefit.

Connection Seating, based in Huddersfield, England, has a large, busy showroom in Clerkenwell showcasing their new Grid system. It can be used to create internal rooms that are modular and subject to customization. The company was recently acquired by the Norwegian group, Flokk.

The stimulus demanded by the recent recession is also having an effect on the design of office furniture. This is all down to providing a product offering which is more cost effective, whilst still meeting the requirements of today’s highly sophisticated and discerning customers – both public and private sector.