This year at Clerkenwell Design Week, we will share stories of how, through collaboration, we are providing furniture and loose-fit joinery solutions for reducing whole life impact, including the introduction of furniture that will adapt to changing needs so that it can last the lifetime of the building.

The launch of ILE, a modular system of furniture for workspaces, designed by Foster + Partners Industrial Design, responds to the need for spaces to be easily shaped, divided, and reimagined.

Designed as an evolving range of interchangeable elements that can be easily reconfigured, ILE includes benches, tables, shelves, storage, lockers and planters, all made in solid timber, that can be connected back-to-back or alongside one another to facilitate different ways of working. Integral to the system’s flexibility is an innovative timber fixing strip that allows users to lock together and separate each element with ease.  A characteristic ‘shadow gap’ runs the length of the whole system enabling power displays, lighting rail, and a range of accessories including shelves and book ends, to be placed in any position along the worktop.

ILE is presented in solid American red oak and British ash – two sustainable, practical, affordable and beautiful wood species. American red oak (Quercus rubra) constitutes approximately 18% of North America’s hardwood forests, yet it remains significantly underutilised. Opting for red oak over more conventional hardwoods not only enhances biodiversity but also reinforces the resilience of natural forests. British ash, another underutilised timber, will soon be lost from our countryside due to ash die-back.  Rather than seeing this timber left to rot or used for firewood, we are promoting its use for furniture so that the carbon can be locked up for longer, utilising the whole of the tree and celebrating its natural variation in colour.