Dutch Design Week 2018

An all inclusive loving robot catwalk, Design Academy Eindhoven grad show and mussels in the 3D printer. 10 must-see exhibitions at Dutch Design Week 2018 tuning with the main theme ‘If not you, then who?’

Dutch Design Week 2018 is in full swing with its hyper innovative, informal and quirky vibe. The biggest design event in Northern Europe, takes over the city of Eindhoven until October 28. This year’s theme – If not you, then who? – focuses on a massive task and urgent responsibility designers must deal with: making the world a better place. We picked 10 must-see exhibitions raising questions and proposing out-of-the-box solutions for a better future.

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THE MAIN THEME – “The streets, the buildings, the bus or car you used to move around your city. Everything is designed. All our services, all our products are designed.” Says Dutch Design Week director Martijn Paulen to Archipanic. “We live in an entirely designed world – and that means, it’s up to you designers. If not you, then who?”

But it’s no only up to designers. It’s up to all of us as consumers, entrepreneurs, institutions, policy makers and educational institutions. “No one has a platonic relationship with this world which is mine and yours. There is not a divine force from up above us to shape our future. It’s really up to all of us. If not us, then who?” Says Martijn Paulen.

These 10 exhibitions respond to that, check’em up!

G18: Design Academy Eindhoven

The graduate show of Design Academy Eindhoven showcases 208 projects by 185 graduates. For the first time in nearly two decades, the DAE Graduation Show leaves the DAE campus and will be showcased in the historic Campina Milk Factory. Mathilde Nakken combines coastal engineering with saline agriculture while the Women’s Chairs Project by Anna Aagaard Jensen features public seats for an ideal world.

Robot Love

The Robot Love exhibition features the work of more than 50 artists, designers and scientists asking if robot can love us, and if we can we love them back.We live ins world where peacemakers, dating apps Artificial Intelligence and high-tech devices and softwares made their way into our daily routines, bodies and emotions. Attend to an all-Inclusive Cyborg Catwalk with several cyborg projects by Petra Ardai, Bartosz Seifert & Ieva Jaku?a, Gill Baldwin and many others.

TAKE AWAY: Dutch Invertuals

World’s population is skyrocketing, consumption of non-essentials has become a part of our daily lives. Can we ultimately fade out the obsolete and go back to the basics? Dutch Invertualsrethinks the essence of our true needs through the work of 10 designers. Willem van Hoof exposes non-essential stuff that we keep in our homes, the Wobble Stool by Christian Hammer and Jade Chan contrasts hyper-digitalization encouraging movement and play in the real space.

Mind the Step

Find technology based design as result of scientific research at the MIND THE STEP exhibition and platform. See how a special coat enables you to survive in harsh circumstances outside, observe how mussels can be the resin for a beautiful design lamp and discover how game playing between seeing and blind people can be made more attractive for both. On show, the work of over 50 designers from from three Dutch Universities of Technology – TU Delft, TU/e, and Twente University.

Piet Hein Eek Factory

Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek presents his new collections at his flagship store and showroom. Do not forget to visit the Young Designer and Small Studio exhibitions while you’re on site. On show also a Quilt Garden and the Library of Waste, an exhibition by Fou de Feu presenting fragile fossils out of waste materials.

Designing Labour, design with meaning

The Social Label Movement Collection & Community aims to create an inclusive world together through the power of design. At the Piet Hein Heck Factory, leading Dutch designers including Piet Hein Eek, Kiki van Eijk and Edward van Vliet, teamed up with sheltered workshops all across the Netherlands to create a design collection building a sense of self-worth and opening new perspectives.

Body of Work’ by OS ? OOS

OS ? OOS present their Body of Work, an exhibition featuring the studio’s both past and current projects developed in Eindhoven. On show the Repeated Mirrors series composed of a mirror framed in layers of coloured glass in different organic shapes and the Tunnel collection of screws or fasteners-free benches, stools and tables made of anodised aluminium tubes and glass.

#TIMESINOW by Baars & Bloemhoff

“Is time to give new meaning to much-discussed themes such as sustainability, circularity and digitization.” Material producer Baars & Bloemhoff presents the #TIMEISNOW, an exhibition in 4 acts and contemporary trends unveiling the brand new furniture series Transitions IV: The not so Flat Collection. Lex Pott, Tijs Gilde, Jasmijn Muskens, Daphna Laurens and Johan Moorman experimented with Baars & Bloemhoff’s materials to design a the flat-packed series.

Alter Ego

Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk play with all the roles a designer can take. Joost presents himself as a composer creating new tinkering lamps, a father interpreting his sons drawings in 3D, a treasure hunter turning old gymnastic furniture into a new chairs and tables and more. As a gardener Kiki discloses the beauty of scales, structures and repetition in freeform sculptures. As a poet she translates the poetics of space in a series of object while as a socialist she fights for a better future for women, together with ‘Return to Sender’ in textile designs… And more.

DDW Music Festival

Dutch Design Week is accompanied by the DDW Music Festival, a fully-fledged programme of gigs and djj sets featuring more than 90 national and international artists performing on stages across the city. From a pianist at Piet Hein Eek to Thai funk in the Effenaar, and from folk in one of the city’s oldest cafes to house at the Fuutlaan. See the full line-up here.