Looking back at Dutch Design Week 2017
The Dutch Design Week is over and once again, we have enjoyed it. The current themes of today, in which we were made aware of the consequences of our actions, were prominently present. How do we deal with our food, our products, our materials, our energy sources, and how do we use technology to solve our problems?
In the field of materials, there were many examples of biobased materials, recycled materials, digital techniques, materials with extra sonic qualities and many projects in which material manufacturers worked together with designers to research material possibilities.
Broeinest, for example, showed in the exhibition Transitions III by Baars & Bloemhoff a special bookcase by Job van den Berg, made with Decospan Decoflex oak veneer. The beams, which are hollow, save 85 per cent wood!
The project in4nite, in which lovely objects were made using ‘normal’ industrial mesh Colback, such as acoustic panels and lampshades.
Digital fabrication processes are increasingly allowing us to design our materials, but the physical results remain analogue. In the exhibition When Digital Gets Physical by Adriaan G. de Groot, the applications of digital materials at different scales were explored. The laws of digital building offer huge potential in terms of structural efficiency and material re-use, and this project is looking to deploy that potential in present-day contexts.
Atelier Arnout Visser’s Big Mushrooms consist of amazing, man-high glass objects, the result of gravity and craftsmanship of the Bohemian glass masters.
Alissa + Nienke, a design studio focused on material research, presented an overview of their work. Their aim is to provoke interaction with the materials through tactile temptation.
Material development is increasingly prominently present each year, which proves once more that materials determine the future.
For more Dutch Design Week 2017, click here, here, and here.
Photos: DDW / Baars & Bloemhoff / in4nite