Natural Colour and Material Expression at Dutch Design Week 2026
At Dutch Design Week 2026, taking place in Eindhoven from 17–25 October, designers explore colour through plants, local resources and material experimentation. Six projects connect natural dyeing, ceramic glazes and textile techniques with questions about sourcing and production. From indigo grown in Amsterdam to glazes incorporating restaurant waste, colour becomes a starting point for reconsidering how materials are made and used.
Growing and Gathering Colour
Living Indigo by Blue Monkey connects locally grown indigo with discarded textiles to create new garments. The project cultivates plants across Amsterdam and experiments with vertical hydroponics for small urban spaces. Residents participate in growing, caring for and harvesting the indigo, bringing colour production into a local network of resources and knowledge.
The Art of Sustainable Fashion: Ecoprint, presented by LEAF & LOOM, explores botanical printing on silk, cotton and linen. The Rotterdam studio uses local plants and kitchen remnants as sources of pigments. Steaming and boiling transfer colour and patterns into the fibres, connecting the appearance of each textile with the plants and processes used to make it.
Colouring Spaces and Surfaces
Mul-deum, by Sunggon Moon, investigates colourants derived from flowers, fallen leaves, plants and soil. Experiments produced twenty colours, with results influenced by factors such as pH and the application surface. Three selected colours are applied to a column, wall and bench, exploring how locally sourced colour can enter architectural and interior settings.
Trace of Dinner looks to restaurant waste as an ingredient for ceramic glazes. Beginning with research into locally sourced clay and glaze ingredients, the project developed through collecting and processing leftovers from restaurants and food suppliers. Collaborations with chefs return these materials to the dining table as ceramics, linking food, tableware and material sourcing within the same setting.
Craft as Material Research
Strata, by Kaustik Studio, translates geological layers into large-scale textile surfaces. Hand-tufted wool, coloured with natural pigments and dyes, creates overlapping tones, volume and relief. Variations in colour and texture become part of the design, expressing ideas of sedimentation, erosion and change through a tactile material.
The Beauty of the Urbild, by Huiling Wang, examines traditional plant dyeing as a method for biobased material development. Processes such as soaking, heating, fermenting and drying are documented and recombined into experiments. These include dyeing cotton with foraged plants and combining bacterial cellulose with fermentation-based indigo dyeing, connecting craft knowledge with research into new material properties.
Across these projects, colour develops alongside the material itself. Cultivation, collection, processing and application all influence the result. For designers, the presentations offer different ways to connect visual expression with material origin, local production and experimentation.
Source and photos via Dutch Design Week