THree days of Dutch Design in Eindhoven

Day 1 · Strijp-S, Klokgebouw, New Order of Fashion, Veem, Design Academy

I started Monday at Strijp-S to pick up my press pass, then headed into the Klokgebouw. There was a lot to see, including presentations from Dutch art and design academies. It is always a joy to watch a new generation show fresh solutions and share ideas.
I continued to New Order of Fashion, stepping into a room of large woollen cloths while a voice filled the space with stories about sheep and wool in the Netherlands, about origins, use and future.

At the Veem building I visited Manifestations. Mattie van Bergen and Herinneringsobjecten / aan-denken moved me, the way image and craft layer over each other, as if memory writes itself back into the present.

Then the Design Academy Graduation Show. Many projects still feel in the experimental phase, sometimes unresolved. That is exactly why the finished ones catch my eye. Victoire Doniger was one example for me. In a concrete corner, a table with pen and ink and a question engraved in the tabletop invited you to write rather than speak, writing as a way to open a conversation when speaking would not come. Large hand quilted textiles formed soft walls around the table. Blue stitch lines translate the paper’s ruling into textile. Small wooden frames held almost unreadable handwritten notes. Social design and careful making met beautifully here.

Day 2 · Biolab, Kazerne, Schellensfabriek, Tafelwerk

I began at Biolab at nine in the morning when it is still wonderfully quiet. I looked closely at SeaSpark by Xu Ben Zhang, Poorva Shrivastava and Karlijn Besse, bio based glitter and holographic sheets made from seaweed and other natural biopolymers, an alternative to conventional glitter made from plastic films and metal foils. Using structural colour, they showed how light itself can generate iridescence without harmful pigments or metals. I then stopped by Cubcho, a press that turns waste paper with seeds and fibres into small blocks. The idea is to let adults experience what you can do with children, so they learn early to treat materials and waste streams differently.

At Kazerne, Fight, Flight or Freeze by Marjo van Schaik  and Daryna Pasyuta struck a chord. In the half dark, coats hung like armour, thick pleated layers of wool dyed with sorrel, and embroidered hemp maps traced streets and scars. Softness became a shield and embroidery became testimony. Last year I wrote my trend book theme Tenera Vis, where quiet strength and tactile empathy counter polarization and hardness.

Vepa × Ineke Hans also stood out with a modular room in room system that brings quiet and focus back into open workspaces. Open frames, soft acoustics, parts designed for easy disassembly and repair. Materials with a past find a new life here. It did not remain a prototype; it is now in serial production, so the circular mindset actually flows into daily practice. With Gertjan de Kam as Head of Design at Vepa, the system stays practical, buildable and scalable.

At the Schellensfabriek, a draft lifted the textiles by Studio Parijat (Paulomi Lalbhai, IN) and stirred the space. In Something Other, Other Characters – An Alphabet of Shapes translated Indian block printing into a modular alphabet of more than one hundred signs, readable and abstract at once, hand printed on Desi Khadi Cotton from Asal (IN).

EggshellCeramic by Atelier LVDW refined eggshells into planters and objects as a bio material.

I ended the day hoping to sit down for dinner at Tafelwerk in the Spoor K basement, curated by Atelier FIG, bringing designers and makers together at one table and framing the encounter with care.

Day 3 · Piet Hein Eek, HOW&WOW, Forward Furniture, Kiki & Joost, de Kruisruimte

I started at Piet Hein Eek, so nice that you can go in at ten rather than waiting until eleven. 

Saudade Collective showed wooden bowls, ceramics in new glazes and the glass spoons by Studio Fleur Peters (GLACE). 

Teun Zwets presented lacquered, coloured, assembled interior pieces. I also stopped by Studio RENS, where colour and material held a sharp dialogue in wall pieces and cubes.

I made a special detour to HOW&WOW at De Fabriek. You see technique and material up close. Fransje Gimbrère showed Standing Textile(s). Kesem Yahav presented brushes with ceramic grips and bundled plant fibres, each with its own character, somewhere between tool and small sculpture. Martine van ’t Hul layered fine embroidery on transparent tulle, a poetic stratification where the image reveals itself slowly.

At Forward Furniture I noticed the care in the selection, objects with a clear rhythm and a hand made origin. I lingered at Lozee and Form & Faith, MDF volumes in polyurethane lacquer that behave like small architectures. In the Abadiseries, arches and repetition wink at Persian architecture. Each piece reads like a short story in form. 

Nearby Jordan Artisan and Lost Form Work showed tactile benches and objects born from EPS forms, finished with a mineral acrylic skin, rough and constructed, as if the dust of making still clings to them, somewhere between seating and garden sculpture. 

Finally GLINA3 and Pick a Flower, cups with relief and glazes that keep moving in the light, 3D printing in spirit yet with a nod to tradition. You can feel the maker’s hand throughout.

I then visited Kiki & Joost in their own workshop. Kiki van Eijk presented Memories of a Garden, jacquard woven wall tapestries developed with the TextielMuseum, inspired by weeks in painter Marc Mulders’ mobile garden studio. Up close you see hemp, paper and mohair suggest depth and shadow, as if forms sit on top of the cloth rather than inside it. Titles like IRIS and BRIDGE bring the studio and the landscape back into textile. And something small but telling, Joost’s Time for Peace clock, a raw hand formed wall clock with a clear message. Part of the proceeds go to War Child.

To close the week I visited de Kruisruimte for SHOW NOT SHOW under INSERT [CONCEPT] HERE, more a look into process than a classic show. Yvonne Mak stood out with curtains and cloths that render time as gradients of colour. The series began last year. This edition she added new pieces that play with sunlight and shadow, the slow shifts that fabrics undergo in interiors. After that, I headed home.