Fung+Bedford at Clerkenwell Design Week: Resonance and the power of the fold
For Clerkenwell Design Week this May (19th–21st), design studio Fung+Bedford presents Resonance, a luminous, large-scale installation suspended within the nave of St Bartholomew the Great, one of London’s most ancient and atmospheric churches.
Fung+Bedford is a design studio that creates origami-inspired, large-scale installations and faceted sculptures for architectural and interior environments.
Comprising four illuminated, folded and twisted paper sculptures, each four metres long, Resonance transforms a single-sheet origami language into an immersive spatial experience. The installation explores emergence – the way distinct patterns arise from complex systems – and how simplicity can emerge from intricacy. Individually, each fold appears modest, but together they create a presence far greater than the sum of their parts.
Crafted from Tyvek, aluminium, integrated LED lighting and architectural fixings, each form is hand-folded from a single sheet of paper up to eight metres long. A key technical challenge – suspending the work without sagging – was solved by integrating the lighting system along each piece, providing illumination and structural support simultaneously.
Suspended within the church’s stone volume, the work acts as an absorber of memory and vibration, holding echoes of sound, music, emotion and history embedded in the walls. Light travels through the folds, activating the sculpture and inviting stillness, contemplation and reflection.
The gravitas and quietude of St Bartholomew the Great were central to the design. The church’s stone architecture offers a contemplative, almost zen-like atmosphere, allowing visitors to hear their own thoughts and sense the passage of time. Fung+Bedford translate this into form through repetitive folding and sculptural gestures inspired by sound waves rendered three-dimensionally. The installation activates the space while maintaining serenity, unfolding moments of calm through mindful repetition and spatial rhythm.
Resonance marks a poignant return to Clerkenwell for Fung+Bedford. As former award-winning jewellers, the duo established their first studio at Clerkenwell Green Association, where, during London Jewellery Week, they first encountered Tyvek – the material that would come to define their practice – after winning a competition to create a window installation. This pivotal moment saw co-founder Angela Fung dissect and reinterpret origami techniques, laying the foundation for the studio’s sculptural language.
Angela Fung comments:
“Clerkenwell has always felt like home for us, so returning to present work in the place where our practice first began carries a deep personal resonance.
Although the scale of what we do now has evolved dramatically, our jewellery roots are still very present – the attention to detail, the commitment to abstraction and minimalism, and the belief that form should always follow function have never left us.”
The work also coincides with the studio’s 10-year anniversary, marking a decade since their first explorations into folding at Clerkenwell. What began as an experimental departure from jewellery-making – liberating in scale and ambition – was met with overwhelmingly positive response, giving the duo the confidence to build an entirely new practice.
Clerkenwell Design Week information:
Address: St Bartholomew the Great, W Smithfield, Barbican, London EC1A 9DS
Dates: Tuesday 19th – Thursday 21st May
Opening Hours: Tue: 10:00 – 18:00 / Wed: 10:00 – 21:00 / Thu: 10:00 – 17:00