We are just back from the Dutch design week in Eindhoven which was an amazing moment. The center of the city was dedicated to show some good window dressing made by local designers, some good interactions with big installations throughout the city and a great compilation of galleries, warehouses and last but not least the famous Eindhoven Design Academy which shown all the works of the recently graduated students.
The industrial zones outside the center are the places where some of the top dutch designers are settled. The Strijp area was a real unique experience with its huge warehouses, old factories transformed in futuristic and surrealistic scenographies like the "Terratorium" with the work of Tessa Koot and Lisa Klappe, also "Based in Amsterdam" with all the upcoming Amsterdam designers like Pepe Heykoop, Geke Lensink, Jesse Visser or Elise Oussoren. The Kiki & Joost Studio was also really stunning to discover and for sure Piet Hein Eek factory which is one of the highlight of the fair regarding the size of the factory and the diversity of creations you can find there. It can take you almost a day to look at everything inside with the shop, the museum, the factory itself and even the restaurant which is such an amazing place to stay. You just sit, have some good food and contemplate the huge room with Piet Hein Eek creations all over the place.
The other major creative area was Sectie C which a huge area with old warehouses turned into design studio everywhere. The first to settle here was spanish designer Nacho Carbonell and about 80 emerging designers followed him to create a small world in the east side of Eindhoven. Some of the spaces in the warehouses are totally re invented and really look like you were in a movie like Madmax. Every studios are made with recycled materials, creativity is everywhere and even the designers themselves look like people coming from another world for some of them.
After Milano design week and the London design Festival this year, the Dutch Design week is such a different and unique experience where highly creative concepts are introduced and creativity without boundaries (ie. big industrial design brand limits) seems to be the main preoccupation here. We will let you discover some of the pictures we shot during the design week and soon you will be able to watch a small movie to discover this particular and unique world of dutch design.
