In public

IN PUBLIC

Dutch Design Week 2008
The varied face of Dutch Design

Dutch Design, viewed as timeless, functional and sturdy, is gaining in popularity
throughout the world. At home, however, it is often seen to have a conceptual and
experimental side. But those who visited the seventh Dutch Design Week, held in
Eindhoven from October 18-26th in the hope of seeing avant-garde expressions of
creativity might have been disappointed.

By Peter van Kester Click on images to enlarge

This year’s event had a more down-to-earth feel than in previous years, with a prevailing theme about social and ecological responsibility. At the same time, however, there was a great variety on show. The organisers of the Dutch Design Week did their best to bring designers into contact with representatives of small and medium enterprises to keep their exhibits relevant. There was clearly a feeling amongst the organizers that it was important not for the creative atmosphere to become so rarified that it would make the target group and manufacturers feel disconnected from the designs. Having first begun as the Day of the Design, Dutch Design Week has now spread to nearly fifty different locations. Hundreds of designers – both local and those from far beyond the Dutch borders – presented furniture, lighting, textiles, fashion, print and 3-D design. In addition to the exhibits, there was an extensive programme of lectures and workshops.

Design and Dementia
In the Netherlands as in many other developed countries throughout the world, the average age of the population is steadily increasing. This creates a host of social problems, but also leads to an enormous new market for designers. One surprising entry during the Dutch Design Week was the Design and Dementia exhibit, sponsored by the provincial authorities of Noord-Brabant – the Dutch province in which Eindhoven is located. This exhibit showed furniture, games, books and other products that could be used to stimulate the minds of people with dementia. One of the most interesting products was the game set ‘Klessebessers’, a colloquial Dutch expression roughly translated as ‘Let’s just sit and chat’. It included a radio, a TV receiver, an old-fashioned suitcase and a telephone. Groups of people with dementia can sit around this set-up and be presented with well-remembered sounds, images and even smells. It has already proved to be successful in a Rotterdam centre for people with dementia. While there is scope to improve the design of the products shown in this exhibit, these serve a very useful purpose and deserve further development (Fig. 1).

The power of Chinese tradition
Another eye catching exhibit was the work of several Chinese designers at the Yksi gallery in Eindhoven. Despite having an international reputation, these designers are relatively unknown in the Netherlands. The screens designed by the architect William Lim from Singapore, the chairs created by Freeman Lau from Hong Kong, which fit together like the pieces of a three-dimensional puzzle (Fig. 2) and the sofas by Lv Yongzhong from mainland China (Fig. 3) display their Chinese roots. These pieces have a traditional look and at the same time include many interesting details that reveal the great potential of the Chinese tradition to inspire future innovation.

Dutch Design Awards
During the Dutch Design Week designers and manufacturers are presented with the annual Dutch Design Awards. The prizes cover a number of different categories. In the past, designers and manufacturers submitted entries themselves, which led to a large discrepancy in the quality of the entries. This year, however, in addition to self-submissions, the organisers sent out experts to select suitable entries. They also eliminated entries that were below par before the final selection process took place. This led to a welcome reduction in the total number of entries, and a rise in the quality of the submissions. All the award-winning entries and some runners-up – cycles, books, furniture, lamps and scale models of interior design - were put on show in the centre of Eindhoven, in an enormous greenhouse set up in the square in front of the town hall, where they could be seen and accessed by everyone in the city (Fig. 4). Noteworthy award winners included the folding window/balcony from Hofman Dujardin Architecten (Fig. 5) and the SportDomes DJI from Customr which is situated next to the ‘floating jail’ in Zaandam, just north of Amsterdam (Fig. 6). The former can be used to give people who live in flats without balconies access to the open air, while the latter provides an exercise space for the inmates of the floating jail.

Another feature traditionally associated with the Dutch Design Week is the Graduation show of the internationally renowned Eindhoven Design Academy. Lidewij Edelkoort, who has been director of the Academy for the past 10 years, is retiring this year. Many of the class of 2008 chose a Dutch Design theme for their graduation project, while others went for a more commercial idea. Take for example the attractive orthopaedic corsets designed by Francesca Lanzavecchia for people with physical disabilities to allow them to dress stylishly without putting their disability on show (Fig. 7). Graduation work could also be viewed in Talent 2008, the big exhibition of work by European design students compiled by Lidewij Edelkoort and presented in the Design House. She selected 150 students from 75 design academies – many from the Royal College of Art in London and the Eindhoven Design Academy, two of the leading design schools in Europe. Their work included a wide variety of furniture, lamps and accessories, often made from sustainable materials. I particularly enjoyed the stools designed by Reinhard Dienes – a sort of origami in plastic (Fig. 8) – and the unusual radiators created by Guus van Leeuwen (Fig. 9).

1. The Klessebessers (“Let’s just sit and chat”), a game designed by Mariet Schreurs and Helma van Rijn, makes use of a radio, a TV receiver, an old-fashioned suitcase and a telephone to present sound fragments, images and even smells to old people with dementia, to help them to revive old memories.

2. The chairs created by Freeman Lau, a leading Hong Kong designer, fit together like the pieces of a 3D puzzle.

3. The somewhat more traditional furniture designed by Lv Yongzhong from mainland China display their Chinese roots. At the same time, however, it has many interesting details that reveal the great potential of the Chinese tradition to inspire future innovation.

4. Greenhouse on the square in front of the town hall in Eindhoven, containing selected entries for the Dutch Design Awards.

5. The Bloomframe Balcony from Hofman Dujardin Architecten consists of a window that can be unfolded to create a functional balcony.

6. The SportDomes DJI from Customr is located next to the “floating jail” in Zaandam. It allows the inmates to exercise and get a view of the outside world without exposing them to the curious gaze of outsiders.

8. Plastic stools created by Reinhard Dienes – one of the many pieces of work by talented young designers on show in the ‘Talent 2008’ exhibition in the Design House in Eindhoven, compiled by Lidewij Edelkoort

7. The attractive orthopaedic corsets designed by Francesca Lanzavecchia allow people with physical disabilities to dress stylishly.

9. Before modern heating, people used to huddle up to their cattle for warmth. Guus van Leeuwen designed radiators that represent a playful updated version of this idea: shaped like animals and covered in real hides, the user can nestle inside.