Nick Crosbie

By the middle of the 2000’s, Nick had firmly established himself as one of the most creative and pioneering designers of event structures. The nature of his work taking him all over the world delivering structures to a vast range of high end brands and agencies. The structures have not only been engineered to be safe and easy to use, but have been designed to inspire and engage with all who see them.

Not being an individual who ever sits still, Nick could see that the industry needed to be challenged further. Aside from his structures, he could see that, in the main, the events industry is serviced with standard, drab, and in some cases low quality marquees.
He could see an opportunity to bring a new system to challenge the events industry status quo.

Throughout the middle to late 2000’s Nick and his team worked on a range of one-off projects under the working title of AirClad. These projects ranged from restaurant terraces to car show rooms.

In 2011, Nick develop a structure for the sports brand, Puma, to tour with the Volvo Ocean races. The work that had culminated over the last years came to fruition in this new AirClad system.
The system was mobile, engineered beyond any normal temporary structure, and with form following function, it delivered on Nick’s desire to create engaging and inspiring spaces. However, this new Puma structure was more than an event system, it was more like a piece of architecture. It was ‘Event Architecture’.

With the success of the Puma structure, Nick could now develop a strategy for AirClad. There was still a lot to learn and develop before he could really put the AirClad brand name to this new system. As a result, he continued to make a series of one-off AirClad projects, learning all the time and refining the details which would become key to the system we now proudly promote.
To help this process and to be able to offer clients 100% product guarantee and an operational service Nick formed IW X as a stand alone operations hub for AirClad.
All new product, development and testing would be undertaken within this new organisation feeding back data from the field for the design and engineers to update the system.

With the commercial success of this new hub, and the knowledge gathered, Nick was able to formally launch the first AirClad XPO range in 2014. These structures remain part of the core range to date, visually unchanged and as inspiring and engaging as ever. However, beneath the skin, technical refinements and enhancements now allow for even stronger, easier, safer and faster build times. This is referred to as #FastArchitecture.

Ever since, the AirClad X range has grown covering anything from small pop up sleeping pods to multi-storey event retail spaces, with an exciting 2020 launch of a full interior shop fit system to fit inside all the systems.

The learning’s have not only been technical and creative, Nick has also been working on ways to minimise impact of his designs. The AirClad system is a high performance structure designed to re use over and over again. To reflect on this in 2018 Nick decided that the company would prioritise rentals and various terms of leasing. This way AirClad would be able to take full responsibility for everything they produce and to service and reuse structures rather than focusing on making to sell and selling to make.
With this as a key focus, Nick has also instigated a process of buying back AirClad units which have been sold and are prominently unused, to service and reintroduce to the market rather than make more.

With the clarity of the AirClad X ranges and the commercial vision to minimise unnecessary production and maximise the lifetime use of the structures, Nick and his team have begun work to develop the global AirClad franchise network.

With the AirClad X event system in place, Nick has now begun the development of ‘Kantoor’, which is a semi-permanent version of AirClad. This system is being engineered and designed for medium to long term needs for office, schools, medical and other commercial building needs.
Nick has taken the ethos of all the work he developed for AirClad and now intends to challenge bricks and mortar. An AirClad system which will be compliant to building codes, yet offering 100% reusability with inspiring great looks.