Dutch Design Week 2021
The Common Table by Zavier Wong
The Design of Value
Dutch Design Week in October 2021 was out in full force, after being digital in 2020, with events spread all over the city of Eindhoven. Designers exposed their work, and it was a joy to visit the different exhibitions after a year of transition, disruptions, and unforeseen challenges.
Despite all the uncertainties of today, DDW 2021 was full of hope; the projects were energetic, investigative, conceptual and creative. Attitudes towards plastic, meat, racism, and gender have undergone significant changes, and together many small steps can have a big impact. This quick change in values can also happen to how we design our built environment and the products we use and we saw the attention for these topics picking up speed.
This year’s theme was “The Greater Number”, the search for the better number’. With this theme, DDW21 was calling for less, and less is not the best solution to more, but better. Many designers showed critical thinking towards the future, the designer’s role, and the design of value. There was enthusiasm end energy to change the world for the better, whether it concerns the carbon problem, housing shortage, mobility or social issues related to inclusiveness. The designers of DDW 2021 charted a new course that can lead us to a sustainable, more social and more just future.
You can download the PDF version of the report here
Anti Consumerism
Our relationship to clothes and fashion needs revising. We have enough clothes and textiles to last us a decade, so what if we stopped producing more? Imagine a future in which fashion is no longer based on new things and novelty. The complexity of communication about sustainable consumption is an essential aspect of the sustainability debate because it is countering sustainable development. The improper use of sustainability claims causes doubt and cynicism. Capitalism was also adressed with a critical attitude towards designer collections inspired by working-class outfits such as tracksuits and overalls. These items are offered at prices unaffordable to the lower classes, affirming social hierarchy and the elitist position of wealthy people..
Top to bottom, The end of the textile industry by Laurianne de Rocha, Consuming confusion by Julia Berg, Post- Replica, Post- Image by Si Young Yang, eAt ThE rIcH by Aurélie Defez
The Future is hidden in the Past
Historic furniture symbolize culture, values and zeitgeist, and how they are designed influences interactions. During DDW 2021, several designers explored how to bring furniture from the past into the present by re-adjusting them. Objects became a symbol for connecting classical values with the present. The furniture reflected on how today’s products will be seen in the future and how we view furniture from the past. Now that we do not want to use new materials anymore, we can make the furniture from the past relevant for today by changing dimensions or merging different elements. The result was a plea for progress over conservation. New dimensions, reforms and displacements reflect the themes from today’s world also about togetherness and communication that are linked to the past.
Top to bottom, Contemporary monument by Yongwon Noh, Mitosis by Thibault Dupille, Much Alike Statues by Leo Maher, Zu zweit by Felix Nömayr
Made by Nature
The natural environment has the potential of being a materials supplier. Material streams from nature, food, textiles, sewage water, buildings, or our cities are potential material streams. Research towards materials that can keep the production circle as small and as efficient as possible was shared. Industry waste, such as eggshells, become a resource. From biobased materials and circular methods to self-harvested materials that were transformed into tactile structures to bring the viewer closer to nature.
Top to bottom, Eggshell Ceramics by Atelier LvdW, Unravelling the Coffee Bag by Rosana Escobar, The Present is a Gift by Quinn van Etten, The Exploded View Beyond Building, an exhibition on biobased materials in the shape of a house.
Tiny Living
The tiny house movement is growing in popularity, and at DDW 2021, there were several small house concepts on view. Because of the housing crisis, an increasing number of people are struggling to afford the rising cost of housing, and tiny houses can help people escape debt and reduce their carbon footprint. Downsizing living spaces is about simplifying life and essentially “living with less”. The tiny houses were made from wood with solar panels and home-grow gardens on top. Also, obsolete structures such as post-agricultural silos were repurposed as residences.
Top to bottom, Silo Living by Stella van Beers, Ripple house by VIRTUe, Myhomeoffice.nu, Room for play by Alexandre Varnier
Transport Concepts
Mobility takes the next step towards a sustainable future with new emission-free modes of transport without batteries, particulates or CO2 emissions. A new approach to mobility and an innovative vision on the use of city space could be seen at DDW 2021. Transport concepts become modular, focused on multipurpose usages such as a hydrogen system e-bike called LAVO that uses water and solar energy for long distances. Stella Vita, a solar-powered mobile home, generates enough solar energy to live and drive on. Mini Vision Urbanaut is an electric vehicle that enables locally emission-free mobility. The interior of the MINI Vision Urbanaut consists of a large percentage of recycled materials; the used materials are almost fully renewable and recyclable.
Top to bottom, LAVO bike by StudioMOM, Stella Vita by Solar Team Eindhoven, MINI Vision Urbanaut
Craft Techniques
At DDW 2021, interior objects and clothes were a reaction to our present-day society, which is furnished with quick and fleeting things. Due to mass production, we live in a society where there are many similar products. Designers were looking for ways to transform cheap soulless items into valuable and distinctive objects. By using simple methods and craftmanship like weaving, cutting, and sewing, designers were discovering the possibilities that these production methods have to offer. The projects attempted to establish more connection by approaching our everyday objects differently and inspiring people to make things themselves again. Projects explored regenerative design using repurposed yarns and deadstock.
Top to bottom, Doodle Pots by Maya Leroy, Outift by Antonia Schreiter, Niemandsland by Larissa Schepers, Cheap Characters by Annemijn Adriaensen
Seeking Balance
We all know that we need radical change for our world but search for how to create this change. This process was researched and visualized during DDW 2021 with questions such as “How can we work together in a better way, improve collaboration and listening to each other and create a place, a moment or a movement in which imagination and innovation can take place?” Many of the projects were examples that inspired a rigorous pursuit of doing things in a whole new collaborative way to move to a more balanced, humane and sustainable world for everything and everyone.
Top to bottom, Volume One by Hawick Henneman, The desert it opposes by Eleonora Toniolo, Beacon of Light by Jesse Visser, The Common Table by Zavier Wong
Equality
Dutch Design Week 2021 chose inclusivity as one of their themes for this year’s applicants. The 1m2 collective in the Van Abbe museum reflected on the inclusivity of the design festival itself. The cost to present their work during DDW is out of reach for many emerging designers. How can this process be made inclusive, and the true costs of participation be made visible? Beauty standards and equality were questioned in various projects of DDW 2021 through designed awareness pieces. Clothes and hairstyles can be an active means of communication and can act as a boundary to protect against the outside world.
Top to bottom, 1m2 collective, Hidden heritages Wendy Owuso, Agbara by Yinka Buutfeld, To be looked at Ness by Hsin Min Chan
The Metaverse
Many DDW 2021 projects explored the influence of digital reality and were exploring new ideas on digital materiality. The inspiration was on how products are digitally designed and made, combining online image databases and modelling and rendering software.
The divergence of aesthetic expressions and the intersection between traditional crafts and complex computer-generated structures brought interesting new expressions. The focus was on combining computer-generated images and surfaces in 3D software with digitally designed physical objects, these projects explored how our tools align our perceptions and aesthetics. It is still early days for the Metaverse and designers are exploring what it will be. In the future the environments are going to continue to blend until the borders are seamless and fluid.
Top to bottom, Digital textiles by Majli af Ekenstam, The resonance of play, Niclas Ekwall, Crash.jpeg by Jonas Hejduk, Self Sufficient Nodes by Ananya Panda