An inspiring and innovative year at CDW26

We presented the Bisley Group portfolio in its entirety, from intelligent storage and soft seating to full furniture solutions for contemporary workplace and home interiors. Showcasing ‘The Layers of Design’, we revealed our take on balanced, productive, and considered interior design, through the incorporation of colour, durable and sustainable textures, and of course, the launch of our BeSmart Innovation Hub.

Here are some of our highlights of Clerkenwell Design Week 2026.

The Bisley showroom

Entering the showroom for the very first time, visitors were greeted with an open, calm workspace, echoing our most recent conversations around wellness and biophilia. Featuring a range of furniture solutions crafted from a mix of steel, wood and soft textures, the core showroom space presented several workplace settings to complement different methods of working. Wrapped in a warm, earthy tonal palette, the scheme continued the theme from the Workspace Design Show held earlier in the year.

Emerald made its official debut during Clerkenwell Design Week, with splashes of the rich jewel-toned green seen across Align, Outline, Bisley classics and a selection of home products throughout the showroom. Introduced as part of our wider exploration of colour and materiality within interior spaces, Emerald brought depth, warmth and balance across both workplace and residential settings.

Our sample and planning area of the showroom saw a transformation utilising our in-house Bisley Bespoke joinery, featuring bookcases and cupboards in a dark, rich wood tone. At the centre of the space sat an extraordinary double stack of our classic A0 Plan File in Emerald, creating a custom table extending from the built-in furniture and acting as a bold focal point within the showroom, showcasing our new colour launch.

We were delighted to officially open our BeSmart Innovation Hub, a dedicated space entirely refurbished to provide visitors with a journey across our expanding smart locker and intelligent storage ecosystem. Designed as a consultative space, the room allows customers to explore the full BeSmart offering and discuss their workflows and workplace requirements, enabling us to demonstrate tailored solutions all within one environment.

The room itself was transformed from floor to ceiling, including a new lighting installation from our friends at No Grey Area featuring stretch fabric and adaptive track lighting, allowing the space to become multifunctional whilst continuing the smart technology narrative through intelligent lighting design.

The launch of the space was supported with an expert panel talk, co-hosted with Dezeen, titled The Invisible Workplace.

The Bisley Home space was also rejuvenated with a bright and tonal green palette displayed throughout. For Clerkenwell Design Week, the recently launched Fern Peek collection was dressed as a self-serve sweet shop, bringing a playful and colourful edge to the space. Our newest shoe storage range, Warren, was also on display, whilst the refreshed layout brought a new openness to the room, creating a relaxing haven that stayed true to the comforts of home.

Our events

Clerkenwell Design Week kicked off with a live panel discussion titled The Invisible Workplace, hosted in partnership with Dezeen. The talk explored how smart technology is quietly reshaping building design and the way we fundamentally work within workplaces, linking back to our theme of The Layers of Design. Hosted within our newly launched BeSmart Innovation Hub, the session explored AI, connected technologies, workplace data and smart infrastructure, and how these technologies are beginning to influence not only the way workplaces function, but how they feel and support people on a day-to-day basis.

The panel featured Megan Dobstaff, Design Director at Gensler, Brandon Lutz from PLAUD AI, and Sam Farrant from Smart Spaces, with the discussion chaired by Amy Peacock, Architectural Editor at Dezeen. Shaun Reaney, Bisley’s BeSmart Technology Manager, introduced the talk and contextualised the thinking behind the new Innovation Hub space. Topics throughout the discussion ranged from AI-assisted workplace journeys and intelligent booking systems to the future of collaboration, well-being, sustainability, and designing more human-centred spaces.

The talk was a brilliant success, with fantastic turnout and engagement from guests throughout. The conversation continued long after the panel had finished, with many attendees staying to network over drinks and lunch within the showroom. It was great to see such a high level of interaction and hear so many thoughtful questions and conversations sparked by the session.

To close the week, we hosted our annual VIP Drinks Event at the showroom on Thursday evening. With beautiful sunshine across Clerkenwell, the evening brought together customers, architects, designers, friends of the brand and colleagues from across our global subsidiaries for a relaxed celebration to round off the week. Guests enjoyed a selection of delicious canapes and drinks alongside live music from a singer performing throughout the evening, creating a brilliant atmosphere across the showroom and courtyard spaces. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces, meet new ones, and celebrate another successful Clerkenwell Design Week together.

Trends and highlights

Throughout the week, we saw some incredible showrooms, exhibitions, and events that focussed on important industry themes including well-being, sustainability, material exploration and neurodiversity in the workplace.

One of our highlights was the Ahrend showroom, where they showcased their sustainability journey across workplace seating alongside a range of material collaborations. A particular standout was the ‘Well Chair’, displayed in an exploded format that carefully broke down every individual component and material used within the chair. The installation highlighted the chair’s modular construction, recycled aluminium frame components, sustainably sourced timber legs and recyclability credentials, offering a transparent insight into circular furniture design and manufacturing.

Also featured within the space were sustainable lighting innovations from Spark & Bell, including their ‘Bo’ Wall Light collection created from locally sourced recycled plastics collected from workshops, homes, suppliers and local businesses. Developed over the course of a year, the material resembles marble in four colourways inspired by classic marble regions, transforming waste into beautifully crafted lighting pieces.

Alongside this sat a fascinating new material called Pit-Board by Pit-to-Table. Originally formed in Cyprus, the company transforms discarded olive pits into decorative bio-panels, creating an innovative and sustainable alternative to traditional surfaces and worktops. Suitable across hospitality, workplace interiors, furniture and exhibition design, the material was displayed across a series of surfaces and applications within the showroom and was impressive both visually and tactically.

Another highlight from our friends over at Bolon, whose flooring we recently used throughout our own showroom transformation, was their activation in collaboration with Tom Dixon. Their showroom and courtyard spaces were transformed into relaxed hospitality-inspired environments showcasing Bolon’s latest circular design innovations, including the launch of Back2Bolon and the relaunch of the BKB Flooring & Rug Collection. Layered with outdoor rugs, lighting and furniture pieces, the activation perfectly demonstrated how commercial flooring products can create warm, textural and residential-feeling spaces across both indoor and outdoor settings.

Bolon also extended the experience into The Sutton Arms pub, a favourite in Clerkenwell, showcasing their woven flooring outside under beautifully designed parasols, creating a vibrant hotspot that felt both immersive and effortlessly considered.

A final standout was the installation by Conran and Partners in collaboration with YesColours and GF Smith titled The Way You Make Me Feel. The immersive activation explored how colour can influence emotion, memory and mood within interior spaces through a playful display visible from the street. The installation felt like a strong fusion of collaboration between brands, materials and design disciplines, bringing together colour, graphics and spatial storytelling in a way that was both joyful and thought-provoking.