Newness Reconfigured
The Newness Reconfigured panel, from left: Lisl du Toit, Tola Ojuolape, Johanna Agerman Ross (moderator), Bo Hellberg and Ab Rogers.
Rapid refits and refurbishments are a familiar phenomenon within interior architecture – beautiful, functioning interiors are torn out by brands and institutions after only a few years to clear room for new interpretations of the space that can attract fresh engagement and interest. With the ecological costs of this approach clear, however, what could be done to mitigate this environmental impact?
Newness Reconfigured, a panel discussion hosted by String Furniture in partnership with Disegno, set out to answer these questions. Bringing together a panel of interior architects, the talk was hosted as a live event on 20 May as part of the 2026 Clerkenwell Design Week, and is now available to all as a Disegno Podcast.
The panel discussion was created to explore the potential for modularity and adaptable systems that can change and adapt with a space, allowing for renewal without the need for wholesale replacement. Curated by Disegno, the event was developed to resonate with String’s history of developing modular storage systems – from Nisse and Kajsa Strinning’s original 1949 String System, to 2024’s Center Center system, designed by Form Us With Love.
The panel was hosted at the String installation in Clerkenwell’s Old Sessions House and moderated by Johanna Agerman Ross, Disegno’s founder and the Conran Foundation Chief Curator at the Design Museum in London. The panel itself comprised interior architects Tola Ojuolape, Ab Rogers, and Lisl du Toit of Universal Design Studio, as well as Bo Hellberg of String Furniture.
You can listen to the podcast here, or download it wherever you get your podcasts from.
Newness Reconfigured was recorded in London at the String installation in Old Sessions House on 20 May 2026 as part of Clerkenwell Design Week.