Dutch Design Week Eindhoven
From 22nd- 28th October, I was lucky to visit Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.
DDW brought professionals and creatives from all fields of the creative industry, from Artists to Fashion Designers to Product Design you could find all kinds of influences all in Eindhoven.
Visiting Eindhoven with Studio Cosima on Monday (then going myself on Wednesday), I found Eindhoven to be the city of creatives as most of the companies or creative schools where based in this small city. Everything was closely located and easy to get to. Even if you didn’t feel like walking the distances, there where free shuttle buses or free Renault ZOE cars which also took you from each location.
Strjip-S- Free event.
Closest to the train station other than the centre, this area had open studios which allowed visitors to come into studios and see companies work environment and talk to them about their products and their ideas.
Piet Hein Eek In Strjip-R - Free Event.
Piet Hein Eek is a famous Dutch furniture designer whom has his own factory in Eindhoven and opened his factory for people of DDW to come and visit. Piet Hein Eek mostly works with recycled wood and uses them to make his designs. In the factory you could see employees and other creatives in their studio spaces working among the buzzing crowds of visitors.
Strjip-T- Only certain parts of Strjip-T are for free so keep an eye out!
In Strjip-T we walked around and even spoke to some past connections of Studio Cosima, whom work on product design. Hidden away in a corridor was an exhibition by local students at Eindhoven’s Academy.
This exhibition by the students showed what if Amazon’s “Alexa” or “Google Home” technology advances. The idea showed how what if common household objects began to have a mind of their own and begin to speak not only to you but each other. This video below shows a toilet and mirror communicating between themselves without human interaction.
This is an interesting concept and shows just how close we are and how far we’ve come with technology. But at the same time, I really wouldn’t want a talking toilet in my home thank you!
Sectie C- Paid event 3euro entry.
In Sectie C, there was a lot of studios open for visitors to come into the studios and see the products. You can also buy some products (but for me this is out of my budget for now!). There was also a lot of exhibitions from Students in open spaces and talks from product designers.
Eindhoven Centre -The Centre had many events going on, you have to be careful where you look as some in the centre are for free where as some are not so try to refer to the map given to you at the train station!
At the top of Bijenkorf (Kind of the Dutch Selfridges) is an art exhibition by local students using sprinkler systems to paint a Canvas which would drip onto the floor and leave interesting stains on the floor.
This exhibition was about the history of Amsterdam and the Netherlands and how they came to be conquered and then set up colonies in other countries such as America and Indonesia.