The Dots #5 - London Design Festival 2012 by Connecting the Dots

interview

Deyan Sudjic about the Dutch p.12 column

Ineke Hans and the RCA p.17 interview

How Droog can it get? p.18

the dots Connecting the Dots showcases all Dutch presentations at the London Design Festival 2012

#5 September 2012 London

article

Socially Responsive Design p.42 interview

Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie about the future of Items magazine p.52

Partners Connecting the Dots 路 London 2012

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Rachel Griffin, Rotterdam · Rachel Griffin is an American designer, who after her graduation at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011 started her own firm named Earnest Studio. Thought the name is not related to Shakespeare’s novels, Earnest Studio wants to keep its work pure and honest through researching traditional and sustainable production methods. Griffin is based in Rotterdam, where she did her internship at Studio Makkink & Bey, designers whose she admire and value, together with the London-based studio Industrial Facility. www.earnestly.org

Jólan Van der Wiel, Amsterdam · Jólan van der Wiel graduated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where he established his studio in 2011. Soon became a designer-to-keep-an-eye-on with his ‘Gravity Stool’ that was especially acclaimed at Milan Design Week 2012 in Milan. His favourite designer is Olafur Eliasson. www.jolanvanderwiel.com Connecting the Dots presentation p. 30

Emmanuel Babled, Amsterdam 路 When asked who was his favourite artist he replied: Mother Nature. The European Institute of Design in Milan had between its students Emmanuel Babled, a French designer who established his independent studio in this famous design city in 1992. In 2010 he moved his firm to Amsterdam where he continues to show his talent after 20 years of experience in the design field. www.babled.net

Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, Amsterdam 路 While half of Europe was packing to leave for vacation, in the summer of 2006 Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta were deep in their work, starting their design brand. Design Drift is a duo design firm created after graduating at the Design Academy Eindhoven. In their childhood they wanted to become a horse (Gordijn) and a robot (Nauta), growing up they kept their fantasy and creativity alive developing a personal Wonderland of shapes and lights that you can visit in their studio in Amsterdam. www.designdrift.nl

Maarten Baptist, Eindhoven · The young Maarten Baptist dreamed of selling ice creams on the beach. Growing up, he decided to stick to the food and restaurant business, but started to make furniture pieces from the age of 8. After graduating at Design Academy Eindhoven, he founded JOINE in 2008, which mostly creates kitchen furniture as cutlery and glassware. Though not even close to the food design field, his favourite design item is ‘TEDDY BEAR’ by Philippe Starck (1998). www.joine.nl

foreword From networking to collaborating David Heldt

11 interview A view on Design, Dutch design, Research and the Museum: Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sedjic interviewed by Anne Bates

12 column Design Faces Ineke Hans

index Dutch Design London 2012

25 Guide Dutch presentations Moooi Ineke Hans Bolefloor Sabic Mint Social-Unit Vij5 Pastoe Bo Reudler Prooff Studio Lambert Kamp NgispeN Mosa Van Rossum Meubelen Anon & Co. Bathroom Mania! Dennis Parren Imme van der Haak Jólan van der Wiel Studio-Re-Creation Studio Rik ten Velden Teun Fleskens The Cottage Industry Tiago Sá da Costa Versaflex Systems

26 – 31

article Socially Responsive Design Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye

42 column London – Olympic Games and Design Jan van Weijen

50 interview Items, the conscience of Dutch design Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie interviewed by Tracy Metz

Maps London

32 – 37 Program

interview How Droog can it get? Renny Ramakers and Agata Jaworska interview by Daniela De Lorenzo

38 Index

52 portraits Ten portraits of Dutch designers Photographed by Judith Jockel

18 article Waste Mountain as Arm Accessory? Heleen Willemsen

4 – 8, 57 – 61

22 11

content

the dots #5

Favourite everyday object of Julius Vermeulen Advisor visual communication PostNL, The Hague

From networking to collaborating Cultural entrepreneurs and institutes in the Netherlands have to defend their raison d’être and adapt to the new economic reality whenever necessary. It can be a painful but often healthy development. Whereas five years ago the new creative class met each week for sponsored network drinks, radiating success and armed with a stack of business cards wrapped in rubber, now it has become more modest, is open to far-reaching collaboration, and meets by appointment. The trendy jackets are back in the wardrobe awaiting better times. In the interview with the design magazine Items on page 52, managing director Pao Lien Djie has this to say on the present economic conjuncture: ‘It does mean that we have to become more creative in forging collaborations with partners who share our stance on the cultural importance of design and the arts in general.’ Networking has given way to collaborating. This is as true of magazines as it is of government bodies such as Premsela, which is on the eve of a merger, and certainly of designers as well. The design sector is redesigning itself, and that is a job we will have to do together. I dare not say whether the financial situation has anything to do with it, but the meaning of the word design is also changing. When we talk about design, we increasingly have to explain which part of the spectrum we are referring to, because it is growing broader and broader. In the article Socially Responsive Design on page 42, the London-based design researchers Anette Lundebye and Hannah Jones go into what we mean by the term Social Design. They explain: ‘In line with societal changes, we are seeing designers that are forging new roles as facilitators, mediators and change agents. Design thinking is moving out of the box and into the world.’ So collaboration is not just confined to the professionals, but the public seems to be playing a crucial role in the design process too. Lundebye and Jones continue: ‘Rather than looking at people as mere passive consumers, they are included as active participants and offered a chance to co-design the lifestyles and livelihoods we want.’ We have to find out what we need before we start to make it. Once again Connecting the Dots is full of articles and photos. We have deliberately opted for shorter articles but more of them. As in previous editions, the magazine is illustrated by 10 portraits of Dutch designers, this time photographed by Judith Jockel. Besides the articles mentioned above, we have invited the director of the Design Museum in London Deyan Sudjic for his opinion on Dutch design, we interviewed Droog design about their striking presentation in Milan, and both the designer Ineke Hans and the Head of Public Diplomacy, Press & Culture at the Dutch Embassy in London Jan van Weijen have each written a column. You will have seen that the design of Connecting the Dots has been completely renewed. Design studio Haller Brun has carried out the graphic design of this edition with great care and precision, as well as providing Connecting the Dots with a new housestyle and website. Of course it is not so much design thinkers but design makers who will be present at the London Design Festival. No less than 25 Dutch companies will present themselves on various locations in the city. For the first time, Connecting the Dots will itself present a selection of 12 companies at Tent London. Please come and see our presentation, and make use of the maps on the inside of the magazine to view all the other exhibitions as well.

David Heldt Editor-in-Chief

foreword

the dots #5

A view on Design, Dutch design, Research and the Museum: Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sudjic interviewed by Anna Bates Photography by Hege Saebjornsen This year, eight Dutch design studios were nominated for the Designs of the Year prize at the Design Museum in London; among them a land mine detonator, a conference exploring ‘What Design can Do’, and a speculative project that imagines a present without oil, through a series of vessels made of natural polymers. Anna Bates spoke exclusively for Connecting the Dots to Deyan Sudjic, the museum’s director, about the changing landscape of Dutch design. Or, at least, she tried to. Is it relevant to speak of ‘Dutch design’ or ‘British design’ today? Do these terms actually mean anything?

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interview

Deyan Sudjic, director Design Museuem London

I always think of the museum as being like a multiplex cinema, it needs to have different shows and qualities: you need art-house and blockbuster.

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Anna Bates · How do you choose what is ‘good’ design? How do you decide what goes on a pedestal? Deyan Sudjic · We are in an agnostic era. People are anxious of using terms like ‘good design’ and ‘bad design’. But when you show something in a magazine or museum, it is seen as an endorsement. So how does one introduce a nuance there? It’s difficult. I think that this is not a museum of ‘good design’, but a museum that tries to look at con temporary design – in particular mass-produced design – to make sense of it. I keep repeating a phrase, which I think Paola Antonelli first used: ‘design is a way to understand the world around us’. I think this is a very powerful idea. AB · Is

this your ethos as director of the museum? I wrote a book called ‘The Language of Things’ around the same time that I became director of the Design Museum, and it’s a manifesto of sorts: a bit of the intellectual knowledge that goes into the museum. But the Design Museum is not mine; it’s a platform for many viewpoints. I always think of the museum as being like a multiplex cinema, it needs to have different shows and qualities: you need art-house and blockbuster. DS · Yes,

The Design Museum in London.

AB · One of the nominations for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year prize was a con ference in Amsterdam: ‘What Design Can Do’. The designers that organised the event claim ‘design thinking’ can be used as ‘a response to the challenges of today’s world’. Do you agree? DS · I took part in the conference and I sort of enjoyed it. It seemed a little innocent in its beliefs. Deep down there is a system idea that if you analyse a problem carefully enough, there is a de sign answer to it. But I never really believed that, because some things are intractable. There are not solutions to everything. It’s a bit like the idea of psychoanalysis: if you put a problem into words, that somehow solves the problem, but I don’t think this is true. Would I go again? Probably not, it’s a theatrical event. The really great conferences they had in Holland about design were in the 90’s, when John Thackara was doing ‘Doors of Perception’; that was amazing. He was really thinking about the subject before it became mainstream, and he really understood it. AB · Designers in the new generation are increas ingly interested in the claims of the conference; that design can be socially and politically moti vated. The output of this line of enquiry is more often systems than things; will you address this work in the museum, and if so, how? DS · The museum is not only about exhibitions. We have a teaching programme here from primary to postgraduate; residencies; talks and other different ways of looking at things. The worst thing a museum can do is become predictable, and what interests me about design is that it keeps on changing its shape. Fifty years ago a design museum could have told a story in a selection of well chosen chairs, which would trace the history of technology; people’s approach to the act of sitting; the architectural languages expressed through the chairs. I still have a collection of chairs – personally and here – but design is about much more than just these things.

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interview

Deyan Sudjic in Museum bookshop.

If design didn’t keep changing its definition it would become as marginal as bookbinding. AB · What do you think is lacking in design discourse now? DS · I think we need more research. On the one hand we know that an iPhone lasts eight months and depends on strip-mining lithium from the high deserts in Chile. On the other hand it does away with a telephone, music system, camera, GPS. It does away with packaging, transport, shipping etc. So we need to work out whether this could be the guilt-free consumption Reyner Banham and the Independent Group were interested in or whether it is really an evil. There was a very strong piece at the Design Biennale in South Korea last year, which was doing exactly this; it presented how an iPhone is made and sourced. But really this kind of research is beyond the scale of an individual; it requires the effort of universities. Unless we get to the root of things we might be doomed to make a huge effort to recycle without much purpose. AB · Do you think it should be part of the work of the

designer, to pay as much attention to the process of how things are made, as the final outcome? DS · I think the good ones do. Vitra doesn’t want to put poisonous pigments into its supplies so it chooses to make things in different ways, but of course if you manufacture in eight different factories around the world, how do you keep track? AB · How would you compare design values in the UK and the Netherlands?

DS · I am always cautious about seeing national characteristics in design, it can quickly degenerate into stereotyping. Look, for example, at how inappropriate it is to describe what Jonathan Ive does as ‘British design’ simply because he is British. It’s equally problematic to call it American design. Apple puts it well when it prints the words designed in California on the side of the box. What is inside is assembled in Shenzhen from components made in a dozen different factories all around the world. To British eyes the Netherlands is a country which initially seems very familiar; both have a queen as a head of state; both are beer drinking and football loving; both have lots of 18th century brick terraces with sliding sash windows. But in fact the superficial similarities conceal utterly different characteristics. The Netherlands depends on an almost Japanese social cohesion that the British have trouble with. They live very close together with big windows; you see your neighbours all the time, which is rather un-British. AB · Do you think this characteristic is reflected in Dutch design? DS · What has come to be called Dutch design is better called design in the Netherlands, which is the product of some well publicised educational experiments, and the residual afterglow of a state that once felt obligated to reflect certain cultural values for example, through the design of the PTT, and the Pre Euro banknotes.

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deyan sudjic

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Favourite everyday object of Anouk Vogel Landscape architect, Amsterdam

In 1995 I graduated from the Royal College of Art. Two years earlier I had made a very conscious choice to go to London and study there. London was tempting and my impression was that design in the UK was more focused on industrial thinking. Coming from Dutch education that taught conceptual thinking and having graduated there with one-off pieces (limited editions avant-la-lettre, you could say) this seemed a very wise and interesting move to me.

traditional.” Marjan explores the potential use of new and high-tech technologies for our lifes now and in the future. In her field she certainly is an outcast as a woman, but equally Dutch in her storytelling way of confronting us with technology and getting us acquainted with it.

The Energy Collection, by Marjan van Aubel. Graduation show RCA, London 2012. 380 chairs for Ahrend by Ineke Hans

Design faces

This year I was external examiner at the RCA for Design Products. In 1997 I had my RCA exams myself and – unlike my main reason to study in the UK – I graduated with mainly one-off pieces, exploring designed objects, their functional visuals and sculptural powers. Not very industrial but very con nected to the more artistic work I made in the Netherlands before.

Ineke Hans

What is experienced as Dutch still seems to be part of them and me after two years of the RCA. Do London and the UK make any sense for Dutch Designers, you might ask? You could also say that design has many faces. The storytelling, conceptual part is perhaps not just a typically Dutch phenomenon but one of the faces of design. To me it seems that the UK’s educational system just embraces more designers with different faces in the courses and this might perhaps be the real eye-opener for Dutch Designers! According to Marjan and Imme: “The design world in the UK is bigger and more varied than the Dutch one, which means more possibilities.”

Beyond the Body (film) by Imme van der Haak. Graduation show RCA, London 2012.

It’s interesting to hear that recent Dutch RCA graduate Imme van der Haak still experiences this similar difference in design attitude between the UK and the Netherlands: “My impression is that the background of English design is more based on industrial design history and Dutch design is more conceptual and artistic.” Imme made impressive and personal work: She printed photos of her own body, her mother’s and grandmother’s on trans parent robes. Persons wearing these garments become laden by the body of someone else. According to her own description you could say Imme’s work is very Dutch.

Personally I believe that the future of design lies in where these different faces of design meet: if the worlds of one-off experiments, high technology, storytelling, asking questions and industrial production get together, it provides us with great and interesting things. Designers have to be aware of all these worlds to make that happen. And London is a great melting pot to make you aware of this.

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Ineke Hans has a Studio in Arnhem, the Netherlands and had her first self-initiated design presentation in The Tramshed, East London, in 1997. (www.inekehans.com; www.immevanderhaak.nl; www.marjanvanaubel.com)

Marjan van Aubel, another Dutch RCA grad uate in Design Products, also recognizes: “The Netherlands has a reputation for an innovative and storytelling way of design. English design is very to the point, is well made and uses high-quality materials. In general it remains quite male-dominated and is more

column

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Daniela De Lorenzo · What was the Milan Design Week

2012 audience reaction to the Droog presentation? People expect to see brand new objects, instead you brought an idea, a concept. Agata Jaworska · We had quite a mixed reaction. While some passed it by, looking for the next show that would feature new objects, others stayed, often for quite a long time, examining each company and discussing their thoughts with us. Many people told us it was refreshing to come to a presentation that was not about the latest product launches. It seems there is a need for presentations that reflect upon the design industry at large, and also upon the furniture fair in Milan as its Mecca.

How Droog can it get? Renny Ramakers and Agata Jaworska interviewed by Daniela De Lorenzo Photography by Ilco Kemmere Palazzo Clerici in Milan looks like a piece of design itself, with its frescoed ceilings and ancient golden-framed mirrors. This glimmering location became just the surroundings for a simple at-a-glance installation by Droog at the Milan Design Week 2012, as part of Domus Open Design Archipelago. Driven by curiosity about this unusual presen tation made me get closer; paper panels placed around the room revealed powerful concepts for a revolutionary view of design. With ‘Material Matters’, Droog presented 20 imaginary design companies which introduce innovative forms of economic systems that draw attentionto material scarcity. Droog showed design through ideas, not objects. Is this a U-turn in the Droog approach to design? Not according to Agata Jaworska, content and project manager at Droog.

NI · What were the criteria for your selection of the design projects? AJ · It was a combination of finding existing initiatives by designers, incorporating some of our own past and present initiatives, and inventing new ones. We wanted a broad range of business propositions, ranging from the realistic, like We Fix, a company that specializes in creative repair, to the entirely fictional, like the 10kg Institute, an institution that rations 10kg ‘polyblocks’ that can be endlessly reprinted in different shapes. The 10kg Institute came from a speculative scenario by Justin McGuirk in an article he wrote about Material Matters, which was recently published by Domus. NI · What are the main features of the business models you are trying to offer? AJ · There is no singular over-arching feature of the business models. Some focus on developing alternative new materials, some on finding alternative material sources, on enabling people to share things, on designing things that last longer, on satisfying our psychological addiction to material goods, on reuse, repair and upcycling. The imaginary fair is an illustration of what is already happening in the real world – designers are reacting in very different ways. NI · This model goes completely against the flow of the whole current system. Do you think that we will have to wait for new generations to fully develop this ‘maximizing’ mentality? Who is most likely to follow this brand-new model? AJ · If you provide a good experience with very simple means, there is no reason why it can’t exist now. Every generation has its own dynamics and urgencies. Perhaps the issue of material scarcity might not be so relevant many years from now. NI · How do you relate the early Droog products to this new approach to design? What do they have in common? AJ · Material Matters frames some of the earlier initiatives within a context that is relevant today. Droog in the early days was very much about improvisation and making use of existing things as a reaction to design that aimed at formal and material perfection. Rag chair by Tejo Remy of 1991 is a classic example, which was featured by the imaginary company Scraps. Material Matters shows a broader range of possible alternatives to making new products from scratch. The imaginary company Waste Watchers

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interview

Renny Ramakers (co-founder and director of Droog) and Agata Jaworska (content/project manager at Droog)

It’s about reconsidering the full chain and redesigning the process, which is part of the designer’s scope.

teaches you how to furnish your house without buying stuff. One of its ‘products’ is Calorie stairs, which proposes using the stairs instead of buying a work-out machine. This idea came from the ex hibition Hotel Droog of 2002, which was all about maximizing experience without the need for more stuff. Material Matters also presents digital and other service-based alternatives to consuming tangible goods. What is also noteworthy is that the formation of Droog was curatorial. Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker put existing developments within a common framework which made a statement about design. Material Matters also brings together existing initiatives as a curatorial act, but I would say this time that the focus is more on a structural level – on the impact of a policy shift, on the need to propose alternative business models.

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Top: Wild Goods, Wild bone china by Christien Meindertsma for Droog. Bottom: UP by Droog, offers a range of goods made with dead stock. Snack set designed by Studio Droog. Material: glass (supplied by Royal Leerdam / Libbey Europe), coating, spoons.

NI · Clearly the tasks of designers are changing.

As designers used to be trained to design products, what is the approach they should have now? Will they need to have new abilities? What sort of skills make someone a designer nowadays? AJ · As an industry, but also like most industries, we are at a point in which reconsidering our methods – of production, of financing, of communicating, of interacting with our audience – is particularly necessary. Some designers are reconsidering the various parts of the supply chain, proposing new ways of sourcing, producing and distributing. The great thing about the (fictionally named) company Sea Treasures by Studio Swine is that the plastic is fished from the sea. The company Solar Sinter by Markus Kayser Studio similarly is intriguing because it brings a self-sustaining machine to the desert where there is an abundance of material and energy from the sun. Crow Works by Joshua Klein is fascinating because it turns crows into material collection agents that gather material wealth while cleaning our streets at the same time. Joshua Klein happens to be a hacker, but I think his way of thinking is also design thinking at its best. It’s about reconsidering the full chain and redesigning the process, which is part of the designer’s scope. NI · Some of the fictional design companies of Material Matters lease or rent objects for daily use. Therefore the public, and not only designers, are directly involved and have a main part in your project. Do you think that consumers are ready to change their attitudes towards this new concept of ownership? AJ · Renting makes a lot of sense at a time when we change neighbourhoods quite frequently, not knowing how long we will stay in any given place. Renting homes and sharing cars are all quite acceptable notions. It can be the same for furniture, and eventually maybe even for clothes. If tax on raw material is increased, it changes the value of existing material. People are likely to treat existing material more carefully, they will be more versatile with what they have, they will be less likely to throw things away, they might be more open to renting things, and so on. With changed incentives, people’s behaviour and eventually attitudes might also change.

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interview

UP by Droog, offers a range of goods made with dead stock. Shoes designed by Studio Droog. Material: carpet (supplied by 2012Architecten/ InterfaceFlor), leather laces.

NI · Are reuse, repair, reboot the new words to identify progress? AJ · Regress can certainly play a role in progress. Repairing – bringing something back to a previous state – will never go away, but our incentives to repair things fluctuate over time, becoming especially relevant when resources become scarce and the alternative of buying something new becomes less attractive. Raising tax on materials artificially increases their scarcity, thereby artifi cially raising the incentives for repairing, reusing or rebooting them. Material Matters presented a myriad of pos sible reactions to material scarcity. There is no single direction that the industry – and that progress – should take, but ultimately the show has a progressive and optimistic tone. Part of progress is rethinking business models and not blindly sticking to the same strategy and expecting the same results when everything else around you is changing. NI · Was

the Saved by Droog (2010) presentation of items saved from liquidation sales and leftovers the core and starting point of Material Matters? What do you think Droog has achieved in the last few years by taking this challenging path? AJ · Saved by Droog is part of a trajectory that started in the ’90s, when Droog was dealing with leftovers. At that time, the main objective was to make a statement about a different approach to design, which manifested itself through new products. We still have that ambition, but now I think we’re

also interested in making statements on structural levels, which means proposing alternative busi ness models and scenarios. NI · The DNA of Droog consisted of a Dutch approach to problem-solving, and a dry sort of humour. Is Material Matters something that fits with that picture? AJ · Material Matters presents a relevant framework for the design industry, speculating about a pos sible state of affairs in the future. There is some humour or perhaps caricature involved, in the sense that each response quite literally took on a ‘branded’ approach. Within the framework, we essentially presented a series of logos with one-line business propositions, in order to convey the message that businesses will react to a top-down policy shift, turning the limitation into a market opportunity. The playful and naïve tone of the logos designed by TD (Theo Deutinger) made them seem as if they were part of another time. Whether or not this fits with the DNA of Droog we’ll leave you to decide.

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how droog can it get?

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It seems as though hardly a week goes by without the eco blogs reporting on a new waste product that designers are converting into a trendy handbag. It is a persistent trend in which the bag designers are increasingly opting for industrial or other rough waste materials. For instance, the Dutch company Kazmok recently won a Red Dot Design Award for its line of stylish, classically designed and robustlooking briefcases and suitcases made from industrial transport belts. If the Kazmok bags are not entirely your thing, as a hip, environmentally-minded consumer you can also choose a bag made from discarded fire hoses, banners, lorry canvas, army tents, men’s suits, parachutes, safety belts, bicycle tyres, sheets, plastic bags, benches, sails, or rice sacks. Most suppliers offer not only various bag models but also purses, belts and protective sleeves for mobile phones and iPads.

Waste Mountain as Arm Accessory? Heleen Willemsen in collaboration with Vormberichten, magazine by BNO – Association of Dutch Designers There is no waste material that designers cannot turn into a bag line. Why are so many bag designers turning to discarded material? And will this save the planet?

Freitag The trend started in 1993 when the Swiss company Freitag introduced its first line of bags made from lorry canvases. Freitag was also one of the first companies to cater to the demand for unique consumer products, since as each canvas is printed differently, every bag is different. Freitag is a big international brand that processes 390 tons of lorry canvas, 36,000 bicycle inner tubes, 220,000 safety belts and 1,200 square metres of recycled airbags a year. Slums Some ten years later, but still as one of the first, the Dutch designer Siem Haffmans introduced his Ragbag bags. These bags are not only made from waste material such as plastic foil, but they are produced by slum dwellers in India into the bargain. The company has won many prizes in the last ten years and sales in various countries have increased to a couple of thousand pieces a year. Easy Both Freitag and Ragbag have been imitated several times. But why is designing bags made from recycled material so popular? Haffmans: ‘Sustainability is attracting a lot of attention. Socially responsible enterprises are enormously popular. And the potential of recycled material is limited, of course. A bag is an easy item to make something of and it is conspicuous in the street.’ So a bag is an easy and eye-catching product when it comes to the incorporation of recycled material. All the same, many of the designers behind the bag labels also have big environmental ambitions with their products. Take the mission of the British firm Elvis & Kresse, which makes fantastic bags from fire hoses: ‘Save the world from waste’. Still, it remains debatable whether you can save the world from waste by recycling it in a product. Elvis & Kresse prevents the discarded hoses from ending up on the scrap heap or in the incinerator. Instead, the waste material is flown over the world to trendy design and clothing stores in the form of bags, to be worn on someone’s shoulder for a couple of years. In the end the bag will wear out too, and will then still end up on the scrap heap or in the incinerator. In the meantime the hose manufacturers carry on using new raw materials to make new fire hoses, which will also be bound to be discarded at some point.

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article

So saving the planet with a bag line is a rather tall order. What Elvis & Kresse and all the other designers of bags from recycled materials do achieve, of course, is to save on raw materials for new bags.

Pallets Siem Haffmans is more realistic about the environmental effects of his own Ragbags and other bags made from recycled material: ‘The environmental effect is relatively limited. A bag is more of a symbolic product, something that communicates. It contributes to awareness of sustainability, but it won’t save the world. We recycle maybe five hundred grams of plastic per bag and the number of bags is not so large. It would be better to make pallets from recycled material, hundreds of millions of them are made. But people simply find recycled pallets less interesting.’ Perhaps that is a bright new challenge for the designers of bags made from recycled materials to devote their creativity and ecological awareness to. Who is going to make the first pallet from recycled handbags? And who will design the first fire hose made from discarded purses, or the first car tyre from used iPad sleeves?

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eleen Willemsen is a freelance journalist and H consultant in the field of ecodesign

9 8

1 Cyclus (inner tubes), 2 Freitag (lorry canvas), 3 Italian Coffee Handbags (coffee packaging), 4 Edson Raup (men’s suits), 5 Ragbag (cotton saris), 6 Feuerwear (fire hoses), 7 Doybags (soft drinks packaging), 8 BELT! (safety belts), 9 Anne van Dijk (army tents and jackets), 10 Demano (banners), 11 Doreen Westphal (inner tubes), 12 Elvin&Kresse (fire hoses), 13 Kazmok (transport belts)

waste mountain as arm accessory?

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Favourite everyday object of Irma Boom Graphic designer, Amsterdam

Dutch Design London 2012 01 Moooi

08 Pastoe

16 Anon & Co.

24 Teun Fleskens

02/10 Ineke Hans

09/18 Bo Reudler

17 Bathroom Mania!

25 The Cottage Industry

03 Bolefloor

11 Prooff

19 Dennis Parren

26 Tiago S谩 da Costa

04 Sabic

12 Studio Lambert Kamp

20 Imme van der Haak

27 Versaflex Systems

05 Mint

13 NgispeN

21 J贸lan van der Wiel

06 Social-Unit

14 Mosa

22 Studio-Re-Creation

07 Vij5

15 Van Rossum Meubelen

23 Studio Rik ten Velden

presentations

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Dutch Design Presentations London 2012

Moooi The Unexpected Welcome

Ineke Hans SCP

Location Moooi London â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The White Building 555 Harrow Road London W10 4RH

Location SCP West 87 Westbourne Grove London W2 4UL

Contact Laura Ramos Bello-Kluit Minervum 7003 4817 ZL Breda Netherlands t +31 (0)6 388 231 22 laura@moooi.com www.moooi.com

Designer Ineke Hans

map A p. 34

Contact INEKEHANS|ARNHEM Burgemeester Weertsstraat 132 6814 HT Arnhem Netherlands t +31 (0)26 389 38 92 info@inekehans.com www.inekehans.com www.scp.co.uk map B p. 34

Bolefloor

Sabic

Mint Mint | A Spatial Surprise

Social-Unit

Location 100% Design London Earls Court Exhibition Centre Stand E112 Warwick Road London SW5 9TA

Location 100% Design London Earls Court Exhibition Centre Stand E40 Warwick Road London SW5 9TA

Location Mint 2 North Terrace London SW3 2BA

Location Gallery House 19 Greek Street London W1D 4DT Designers Wouter Kalis, Corinne de Korver

Contact Prinsengracht 13 1015 DK Amsterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)6 205 545 75 info@bolefloor.com www.bolefloor.com

Contact Michael Smits Plasticslaan 1 4612 PX Bergen op Zoom Netherlands m +31 (0)16 429 29 11 www.sabic.com

Designers Daniel Hulsbergen, Daphna Isaacs, Mieke Meijers, Dirk Van Der Kooij, Kirstie Van Noort, Jetske Visser

map C p. 35

Contact Nadia Chin 2 North Terrace London SW3 2BA United Kingdom m +44 20 722 522 28 info@mintshop.co.uk www.mintshop.co.uk

Contact Corinne de Korver Maasstraat 160-3 1079 BK Amsterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)6 340 249 80 corinne@social-unit.com www.social-unit.com www.19greekstreet.com map E p. 36

map D p. 35

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presentations

Vij5

Pastoe

Ineke Hans SCP

Location Milk Concept Boutique 19 Greek Street London W1D 4DT

Location Viaduct Furniture 1-10 Summers Street London 1R 5BD

Bo Reudler Bathware for SUSHISAMBA’s bathrooms

Designers Framed: Breg Hanssen together with Vij5 NewspaperWood: Mieke Meijer together with Vij5

Designers Pierre Mazairac & Karel Boonzaaijer, Studio Pastoe

Contact Arjan van Raadshooven Debussystraat 2 5654 SC Eindhoven Netherlands m +31 (0)6 245 275 31 arjan@vij5.nl anieke@vij5.nl www.vij5.com

Contact Rotsoord 3 3523 CL Utrecht Netherlands t +31 (0)30 258 55 55 info@pastoe.com www.pastoe.com

Location Sushisamba Heron Tower, 38th and 39th floors 110 Bishopsgate London E1 6QR Designer Bo Reudler Contact Bo Reudler Studio Krelis Louwenstraat 1-B29 1055 KA Amsterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)6 455 264 74 press@boreudler.com www.boreudler.com

map F p. 36

Location SCP Design Department Store 135-139 Curtain Road London EC2A 3BX Designer Ineke Hans Contact INEKEHANS|ARNHEM Burgemeester Weertsstraat 132 6814 HT Arnhem Netherlands t +31 (0)26 389 38 92 info@inekehans.com www.inekehans.com www.scp.co.uk map G p. 37

map H p. 37

map E p. 36

11 PROOFF Hello London, this is PROOFF

Designers Axia Design, Ben van Berkel (UNStudio), Jurgen Bey (Studio Makkink & Bey) Contact Antoinette Veneman P.O. Box 34095 3005 GB Rotterdam Netherlands t +31 (0)10 211 00 80 antoinette@prooff.com www.prooff.com

About PROOFF is about creating innovative products whose every last detail has been refined and refined again. PROOFF involves spatial furniture elements for the progressive office, communication areas and public spaces. From consultation furniture, in which unconscious behaviour can naturally occur, creating conditions for concentration, to the simple functionality and creativity of meeting places. Presentation Premiere of PROOFF #006 at SuperBrands London: at stand 13 – 14 PROOFF’s newest product development, designed by Studio Makkink & Bey (NL) will be exhibited for the first time ever. Of course, you can experience #001 to #005 as well.

Photo‘s: Roel van Tour, Pim Top and Mathijs Labadie, Rotterdam.

Location Super Brands London Stand 13 – 14 Old Truman Brewery Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

map H p. 37

presentations

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Studio Lambert Kamp Be Seated

NgispeN Playing with Tradition

Mosa

Van Rossum Meubelen B.V.

Location Milk Concept Boutique 118 1/2 Shoreditch High Street London E1 6JN

Location Super Brands London Stand 25 Old Truman Brewery Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

Location Super Brands London Stand 8 – 9 Old Truman Brewery Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

Location Super Brands London Stand 28 Old Truman Brewery Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

Designers Maarten Baas, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Dick van Hoff, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Iris Janssen, Jerszy Seymour, Wim Rietveld

Designers Mosa Design Team

Contact Hogeveld 8 6617 KR Bergharen Netherlands m +31 (487) 53 12 88 info@vanrossummeubelen.nl. www.vanrossummeubelen.nl

Designer Lambert Kamp Contact Lambert Kamp P.O.Box 1157 9701 BD Groningen Netherlands m +31 (0)6 482 733 16 info@lambertkamps.com www.lambertkamp.com map G p. 37

Contact Charly Jongejans Parallelweg West 23 4104 Culemborg Netherlands m +31 (0)6 510 028 27 charly.jongejans@ngispen.nl www.ngispen.co.uk

Contact P.O. Box 1026 6201 BA Maastricht Netherlands t +31 (0)43 368 92 29 info@mosa.nl www.mosa.nl

map H p. 37

Connecting the Dots Presentations

16 Anon & Co. Connecting the Dots Presentation Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Bryan Steendyk Contact Anon & Co. Billie Holidaystraat 17 2066 HA Amsterdam Netherlands mail@anonandco.com www.anonandco.com

About Anon&Co.’s journey began with a vision to create luxurious objects of desire by engaging the global community to take timeless concepts to reality. Fashioned by you the design voyeur, Anon&Co. is truly ‘designed by everyone’. As purveyor of design, you, are empowered through our voting portal to elevate extraordinary designs to iconic status, and engage in balanced consumption. Presentation Blurring the line between art and product, Anon&Co.’s bold and energetic work utilises various medium to creatively convey a sculptural allure, exploring line, colour and form in objects derived from recyclable and naturally renewable resource.

map H p. 37

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presentations

Bathroom Mania! Connecting the Dots Presentation

Bo Reudler Connecting the Dots Presentation

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Meike van Schijndel Contact Bathroom Mania Brigittenstraat 2 3512 KK Utrecht Netherlands m +31 (0)30 214 52 10 info@bathroom-mania.com www.bathroom-mania.com

About Bathroom Mania! is an innovative Design company, from Dutch designer Meike van Schijndel, that focusses on reviving the bathroom experience. By using images and stories in their designs they introduce a colorful fantasy world in the conservative white bathroom. Bathroom Mania! received so many positive responses to their Kisses urinal design, that led in 2003 to the decision to start their own production and market the products worldwide! Presentation The Kisses urinal, also known as the ‘mouth urinal’, transforms a daily event into a blushing experience.

map H p. 37

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designers Bo Reudler in collabo ration with Olav Bruin Contact Bo Reudler Studio Krelis Louwenstraat 1-B29 1055 KA Amsterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)6 455 264 74 info@boreudler.com www.boreudler.com

About Bo Reudler Studio designs and realises products (furniture and objects) and interiors commissioned by both private clients and companies. Alongside, the studio initiates and self-produces furniture collections in limited editions. Presentation The aim of the Bamboo Windsor Chair is to re-examine the reputation and aesthetic of bamboo furniture, and to use the inherent qualities of the natural material to create mass products that are all individual. The design is a contemporary interpretation, of the all-time western classic windsor chair, made with Asian craftsmanship and materials: in this way east merges with west.

map H p. 37

Dennis Parren Connecting the Dots Presentation

Imme van der Haak Connecting the Dots Presentation

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Dennis Parren Contact Dennis Parren Fuutlaan 45 5613 AA Eindhoven Netherlands m +31 (0)6 143 556 96 dennisparren@me.com www.dennisparren.nl

About Studio Dennis Parren is engaged in the design of furniture and lamps. Presentation Colorful mysteries of light. You can’t really say “that chair is red”. Actually, the chair is reflecting red light while absorbing green and blue light. It is light that colors the world. My CMYK lamp plays with the mystery of light and color casting an elusive network of lines of cyan, magenta and yellow light on the ceiling.

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

About My work is playful, yet subtle in its approach. I constantly strive to question and challenge our perception of what is ‘normal’, focusing on the everyday, which we might take for granted.

Designer Imme van der Haak

Presentation My interest has a strong relation towards the human body and its appearance, function, and behaviour. ‘Beyond the Body’ focuses on altering the human form by affecting its figure with just one simple intervention. Photos of the human body are printed onto translucent silk, which will create the possibility of physically layering different bodies, generations, and identities.

Contact Imme van der Haak 31A Fonthill Road London N4 3HZ m +44 (0)7 733 84 40 36 info@immevanderhaak.nl map H p. 37

map H p. 37

presentations

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Jólan van der Wiel Connecting the Dots Presentation

Studio-Re-Creation Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

Designer Jólan van der Wiel

About I admire objects that manifest the experimental discovery where natural phenomena are translated into functional design. In my design studio the production process through which products are produced is investigated. This led to the development of new forms of craftmenship I develop production techniques inwhere a natural force is the designer of the obejct.

Contact Jólan van der Wiel Nassaukade 369-2 1054 AB Amsterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)6 339 747 51 info@jolanvanderwiel.com www.jolanvanderwiel.com

Presentation Departing from the idea that everything is influenced by gravitation, a force that has a strongly shaping effect, Jólan van der Wiel intended to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism. The positioning of the magnetic fields in the machine, opposing each other, has largely determined the final shape of the Gravity Stool.

Contact Nikola Nikolov Krommenieerpad 88 1521 HB Maastricht Netherlands t +31 (0)6 270 466 76 nikola@studio-re-creation.com www.studio-re-creation.com

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

map H p. 37

Designer Nikola Nikolov

About While functioning on the grey borders of interior design and art, Studio-Re-Creation does more than re-cycle or re-use materials, it helps to preserve belongings and memories, that would otherwise be neglected or thrown away, by transforming them into iconic sculptural objects. Presentation For Connecting the Dots 2012 Studio-Re-Creation will be presenting a new series named ‘The Scrap Staffies’: ‘The Scrap Staffies’ are sculptural English Staffordshire Bullterriers snapping at light objects. They symbolize the playful relation between man, nature and design and remind us to treat this symbiosis with love, respect and responsibility.

map H p. 37

Studio Rik ten Velden Connecting the Dots Presentation

Teun Fleskens Connecting the Dots Presentation

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Rik ten Velden Contact Rik ten Velden Caeciliastraat 77 A 2312 XB Leiden Netherlands m +31 (0)6 108 994 49 info@riktenvelden.com www.riktenvelden.com map H p. 37

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About By experimenting with material and manufacturing techniques Studio Rik ten Velden tend to create a base for its form statements. Presentation I started my ‘Single Knotted Wire’ project with a visit to the harbour museum in Rotterdam. I was fascinated by all those different kinds of objects knotted. So I asked the Museum’s employees if they could teach me some techniques. I knotted for three months to perfect the technique. Then started to work on my designs. For the lamps and chair only a single wire is used and knotted in a form reflecting its maritime inspiration. The combination of knotting technique and the applied material results in unique constructive features in these designs.

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Teun Fleskens Contact Teun Fleskens St. Annaplein 18 5038 TV Tilburg Netherlands t +31(0)6 300 664 44 info@teunfleskens.com www.teunfleskens.nl www.fiberplast.nl

About Teun Fleskens is an industrial and interior designer, graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven. He has worked for companies like: Douwe Egberts, RIZZ, Habidrome, Design Academy Eindhoven, Commune Veldhoven, Province Noord Brabant, Shoesme Inter national and chyczy. “In a few words my style could be described as experimental, pure, natural versus industrial and clearly present but not demanding”. Presentation The V roots bank can ‘grow’ through their environment because they are modular. Whit 7 different element in various colors you can create many options varying in size and form. All plastic components are produced from recycled bottle caps. The steel parts from recy clable (renewable) materials. Produced by Fiberplast.

map H p. 37

presentations

The Cottage Industry Connecting the Dots Presentation

Tiago Sá da Costa Connecting the Dots Presentation

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Charlie Guda Contact Damian O’Sullivan Burg. Meineszlaan 109 A 3022 BE Rotterdam Netherlands m +31 (0)10 842 73 64 shop@the-cottageindustry.com www.the-cottageindustry.com map H p. 37

About The Cottage Industry products are less about form and more about content. What at first glance seems ordinary, will, upon closer inspection, turn out to be quite unique. Not too witty, not too clever, just simple products that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Why the name? The origins of the term ‘cottage industry’ date back to the days before the industrial revolution. In those days, artefacts were made in people’s homes in limited supply, and it is precisely this which we have in common with our namesake, namely, industriously made goods with special attention to care and quality. Presentation Ever wished you could see what the bee sees? Nestle in close to those petals and see all of the flowers’ fine intricacies in much greater detail. Now you can, as the Big Blossom will greatly enlarge any flower due to its flat magnifying lens. Whether it’s a rose you received from your loved one or a flower plucked from your garden… this vase knows how to make the best of it.

Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Designer Tiago Sá da Costa Contact Tiago Sá da Costa Orthenstraat 282 5211 SX Den Bosch Netherlands m +31 (0)6 344 600 49 info@tiagosadacosta.eu www.tiagosadacosta.eu

About Small studio of Portuguese designer Tiago Sá da Costa based in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. Presently its work is focused on ecological design, more specifically using cork (one of the most sustainable materials) as a core subject. This resulted in the Corkmatters series. Presentation In the Corkmatters series, cork is crafted in a way you have never seen before. It explores the physical properties of cork to an utmost aesthetic use. The combination of laser cutting technology with a unique non-pollutant handmade technique unfolds 2 dimensional sheets into 3 dimensional almost sculptural objects with organic lines. Eco-design at its best with all natural, sustainable and non-pollutant materials.

map H p. 37

27 Versaflex Systems Connecting the Dots Presentation Location Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR Contact Versaflex Systems BV Arrestruwe 39 6218 BE Maastricht Netherlands t +31 (0)45 785 12 22 richard@versaflexsystems.com www.versaflexsystems.com

About Versaflex Systems takes great care to select materials from readily available and sustainable resources. With the invention of the Versaflex, a sustainable and adhesive-free modular flooring system with porcelain top surface has become a reality. Presentation Versaflex is the new flooring system with a push, clip and go feature. Unlike other clip tile systems, Versaflex allows for vertical tile lifting giving immediate access to under floor cables or quick tile changes. No grouting, no cementing and no messy drying time make instal lations typically 6 times faster to lay than traditional wet lay porcelain floors.

map H p. 37

presentations

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01 Moooi The White Building 555 Harrow Road London W10 4RH

Kensal Green Bakerloo London Overground

02 Ineke Hans / SCP SCP West 87 Westbourne Grove London W2 4UL

Royal Oak Circle Hammersmith & City Bayswater Circle District

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map

03 Bolefloor 04 Sabic 100% Design London Earls Court Exhibition Centre Warwick Road London SW5 9TA

Earlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Court District Picadilly West Brompton District London Overground

05 Mint Mint Gallery 2 North Terrace London SW3 2BA

map

South Kensington Circle District Picadilly

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06 Social-Unit Gallery House 19 Greek Street London W1D 4DT 07 Vij5 Milk Concept Boutique 19 Greek Street London W1D 4DT

Tottenham Court Road Central Leicester Square Picadilly Northern

08 Pastoe Viaduct Furniture 1 – 10 Summers Street London 1R 5BD

Farringdon Circle Hammersmith & City Metropolitan Chancery Lane Central

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map

10 Ineke Hans SCP Design Department Store 135-139 Curtain Road London EC2A 3BX 12 Studio Lambert Kamp Milk Concept Boutique 118 1/2 Shoreditch High Street London E1 6JN

Old Street Northern Shoreditch High Street London Overground

09 Bo Reudler Sushisamba Heron Tower, 38th and 39th floors 110 Bishopsgate London E1 6QR 11 PROOF 13 NgispeN 14 Mosa 15 Van Rossum meubelen B.V. Super Brand London Old Truman Brewery Hanbury Street London E1 6QR 16 Anon & Co. 17 Bathroom Mania! 18 Bo Reudler 19 Dennis Parren 20 Imme van der Haak 21 Jólan van der Wiel 22 Studio-Re-Creation 23 Studio Rik ten Velden 24 Teun Fleskens 25 The Cottage Industry 26 Tiago Sá da Costa 27 Versaflex Systems Tent London – Shop 25 Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury Street London E1 6QR

Liverpool Street Circle Hammersmith & City Metropolitan Central Shoreditch High Street London Overground

map

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Program Friday 14th

Saturday 15th

Sunday 16th

Monday 17th

Tuesday 18th

Wednesday 19th

Thursday 20th

Friday 21th

Saturday 22th

Sunday 23th

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00 1

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 18.00

11.00 – 17.00

09.30 – 20.00

03 Bolefloor

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 21.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 17.00

04 Sabic

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 21.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 17.00

01 Moooi 02 Ineke Hans

11.00 – 17.00

05 Mint

10.30 – 18.30

12.00 – 17.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.30 – 17.30 2

10.30 – 18.30

06 Social-Unit

10.00 – 18.00

12.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

12.00 – 18.00 3

07 Vij5 4

10.00 – 18.00

08 Pastoe

09.30 – 18.00

10.30 – 16.00

09.30 – 18.00

10.30 – 16.00

11.30 – 03.00

11.30 – 24.00

11.30 – 01.00

11.30 – 02.00

11.30 – 03.00

11.30 – 24.00

09.30–20 .00

09.30–18 .00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

11.00 – 19.00

11.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 19.00

10.30 – 18.00

13 NgispeN

10.00 – 19.00 5

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

14 Mosa

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

15 Van Rossum Meubelen

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

16 Anon & Co.

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

17 Bathroom Mania!

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

18 Bo Reudler

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

19 Dennis Parren

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

20 Imme van der Haak

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

21 Jólan van der Wiel

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

22 Studio-Re-Creation

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

23 Studio Rik ten Velden

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

24 Teun Fleskens

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

25 The Cottage Industry

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

26 Tiago Sá da Costa

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

27 Versaflex Systems

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 22.00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 18.00

09 Bo Reudler 10 Ineke Hans

09.30–20 .00

09.30–18 .00

11 PROOFF 12 Studio Lambert Kamp

11.00 – 18.00

10.30 – 18.00

11.00 – 19.00

Moooi: Press Breakfast, 19th September 09.00 – 11.00, Marcel Wanders & Casper Vissers will host the event (invitation only) Mint: Cocktail, 20th September (invitation only) Social-Unit: Wallpaper launch party, 14th September (invitation only) 4 Vij5: Cocktail, 12th September (invitation only) 5 NgispeN: Cocktail, 20th September, 20.00 – 23.00 (invitation only) 6 Connecting the Dots: Cocktail, 21 September, 18.00 – 22.00 1

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program

Index A

A Spatial Surprise · 05 p.26, map D Anon & Co. · 16 p.28, map H Axia Design · 11 p.28, map H

Baas, Maarten · 13 p.27, map H Bathroom Mania · 17 p.29, map H Bathware for Sushisamba’s bathrooms · 09 p.27, map H Be Seated · 12 p.27, map G Ben van Berkel · 11 p.28, map H Berkel van, Ben · 11 p.28, map H Bey, Jurgen · 11 p.28, map H Bo Reudler · 09/18 p.27, p.29, map H Bolefloor · 03 p.26, map C Boonzaaijer, Karel · 08 p.27, map F Breg, Hanssen · 07 p.27, map E Bruin, Olav · 18 p.29, map H Bryan Steendyk · 16 p.28, map H

Charlie Guda · 25 p.31, map H Claesson Koivisto Rune · 13 p.27, map H Connecting the Dots · 16 – 27 p.28, p.29, p.30, p.31, map H Corinne de Korver · 06 p.26, map E

Daniel Hulsbergen · 05 p.26, map D Daphna Isaacs · 05 p.26, map D Dennis Parren · 19 p.29, map H Dick van Hoff · 13 p.27, map H Dirk Van Der Kooij · 05 p.26, map D

Fleskens, Teun · 24 p.30, map H Framed · 07 p.27, map E

Guda, Charlie · 25 p.31, map H

Haak van der, Imme · 20 p.29, map H Hans, Ineke · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/G Hanssen Breg · 07 p.27, map E Hello London, this is PROOFF · 11 p.28, map H Hoff van, Dick · 13 p.27, map H Hulsbergen, Daniel · 05 p.26, map D Hutten, Richard · 13 p.27, map H

Imme van der Haak · 20 p.29, map H Ineke Hans · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/G Iris Janssen · 13 p.27, map H Irvine, James · 13 p.27, map H Isaacs, Daphna · 05 p.26, map D

James Irvine · 13 p.27, map H Janssen, Iris · 13 p.27, map H Jerszy Seymour · 13 p.27, map H Jetske Visser · 05 p.26, map D Jólan van der Wiel · 21 p.30, map H Jurgen Bey · 11 p.28, map H

Kalis, Wouter · 06 p.26, map E Kamp, Lambert · 12 p.27, map G Karel Boonzaaijer · 08 p.27, map F Kirstie Van Noort · 05 p.26, map D Koivisto Rune, Claesson · 13 p.27, map H Kooij Van Der, Dirk · 05 p.26, map D Korver de, Corinne · 06 p.26, map E

Lambert Kamp · 12 p.27, map G

Maarten Baas · 13 p.27, map H Marcel Wanders · 01 p.26, map A Mazairac, Pierre · 08 p.27, map F Meijer, Mieke · 07 p.27, map E Meijers, Mieke · 05 p.26, map D Meike van Schijndel · 17 p.29, map H Mieke Meijer · 07 p.27, map E Mieke Meijers · 05 p.26, map D Mint · 05 p.26, map D Moooi · 01 p.26, map A Mosa · 14 p.27, map H

UNStudio · 11 p.28, map H

Van Rossum Meubelen B.V. · 15 p.27, map H Velden ten, Rik · 23 p.30, map H Versaflex Systems · 27 p.31, map H Vij5 · 07 p.27, map E Visser, Jetske · 05 p.26, map D

Wanders, Marcel · 01 p.26, map A Wiel van der, Jólan · 21 p.30, map H Wim Rietveld · 13 p.27, map H Wouter Kalis · 06 p.26, map E

Newspaper Wood · 07 p.27, map E NgispeN · 13 p.27, map H Nikola Nikolov · 22 p.30, map H Nikolov, Nikola · 22 p.30, map H Noort Van, Kirstie · 05 p.26, map D

Olav Bruin · 18 p.29, map H

Parren, Dennis · 19 p.29, map H Pastoe · 08 p.27, map F Pierre Mazairac · 08 p.27, map F Playing with Tradition · 13 p.27, map H PROOFF · 11 p.28, map H

Reudler, Bo · 09/18, p.27, p.29, map H Richard Hutten · 13 p.27, map H Rietveld, Wim · 13 p.27, map H Rik ten Velden · 23 p.30, map H

Sá da Costa, Tiago · 26 p.31, map H Sabic · 04 p.26, map C Schijndel van, Meike · 17 p.29, map H SCP · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/G Seymour, Jerszy · 13 p.27, map H Social-Unit · 06 p.26, map E Steendyk, Bryan · 16 p.28, map H Studio Lambert Kamp · 12 p.27, map G Studio Makkink & Bey · 11 p.28, map H Studio Pastoe · 08 p.27, map F Studio Rik ten Velden · 23 p.30, map H Studio-Re-Creation · 22 p.30, map H

Teun Fleskens · 24 p.30, map H The Cottage Industry · 25 p.31, map H The Unexpected Welcome · 01 p.26, map A Tiago Sá da Costa · 26 p.31, map H

index

Legend number of the presentation 00 p.26 page number presentation map A/B p.34 map C/D p.35 map E/F p.36 map G/H p.37

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presentations

Favourite everyday object of Menno Teurlings Civil service, Amsterdam

What is Socially Responsive Design? We kicked off our interviews by asking our different design researchers, educators and practitioners if they consider themselves as socially responsive designers and how they understand this term.

Socially Responsive Design Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye What happens when designers shift their focus from satisfying consumer desires, to facilitating new social possibilities? In recent design history, different labels have popped up to describe design research practices that engage with social issues. These include participatory design, service design, trans formative design, metadesign and social design. This article explores the notion of socially responsive design, a term coined by design researchers Adam Thorpe and Lorraine Gamman based in the Design Against Crime Research Centre, London, UK. It describes design that makes a social impact, is driven by social issues and delivers social change. Design researchers Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye attempt to ‘connect the dots’ between a range of socially responsive design approaches taking place in the UK, Netherlands and Norway. They set out to interview six design experts from their network to discover how they define socially responsive design, what it feels like to be involved in this practice; and how it’s likely to impact on design in the future.

Maziar Raein · All design has social consequences. I think the difference between socially responsive design and other kinds of design is that it chooses to actively and consciously engage with these issues. Designers have always had an ethical responsibility but quite often they’ve ignored this, as in the case of Philippe Starck. In my eyes, over the past five or six years there’s been a dramatic increase in younger designers really driven to engage with social issues. As an educator, I believe that socially responsive design has come to the fore because of the death of modernism. Since that dominating ‘grand narrative’ has died and the reaction afterwards of the playful or deconstructive approach has come and gone, there are different ideas, energies and motivations surging through design. Adam Thorpe · In 1971, Victor Papanek said, “Design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself)”. He proposed that designers who engage with market led activities (that have a negative impact on both society and environment) should contribute either 1/10 of their time or 1/10 of their income to socially responsible projects whilst continuing with their jobs. More recent notions of social design are less dismissive of the market and economic imperatives. Socially responsive design is not oppositional to market considerations but prioritises social considerations over those of the market. Sanneke Duijf · Socially

responsive design is about using social situations as a starting point of an investigation. Rather than being locked in the design studio you need to get your hands dirty in the field. Design should bring about social development and it can act as a force for change. Socially responsive design does this.

Clare Brass · Socially

responsive design needs to cover all the three bases, the environmental, the social and the economical. It is about identifying societal and environmental problems, thinking about specific problems in detail but also zooming out to see what other problems might be connected and then to join the dots. The main thing you end up designing is relationships. It’s design with people not for people.

Duncan Kramer · I’m

not big on design terms or titles as they rarely reflect my experience of designing, which foremost is collaborative. We most often talk about ‘good work’. It’s not very articulate, but WE know what we mean.

Marco van Hout · I

see an increasing interest in socially responsive design within the context of experience-driven design. In fact, I believe they are interdependent and they share the concept of emotion. Emotions are the drivers behind (social) behaviour as well as behind the experiences we

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Anette Lundebye and Hannah Jones

have in general. Something that is becoming more important in experience design is the impact of products on people’s general health, well-being and happiness. In the past decade or so, the Internet and developments in mobile technology have completely changed our perspectives of the world and our social environment. Take the recent events in the Middle East for example. It made us feel closer to the people actually fighting for change far, far away and made us feel a shared responsibility. Can you give us a practical example of socially responsive design? Each of our experts were asked to come up with examples of socially responsive design from their own practice or inspiring examples from the work of others. Duncan Kramer · Okay,

so if you take PlantLock, to me it’s a piece of political design. I say political because it’s supposed to affect the way people perceive the world around them and how they act. It’s encouraging people to cycle and to grow things in urban areas. These are two activities that have been made difficult because they don’t fit the dominant models. For example, loads of infrastructure is provided for driving and that in turn that creates jobs etc… fuelling a self-perpetuating system. Cycling isn’t like that. It’s a much wilder more elementary thing. It’s hard to control and it’s hard to make money from. Our Green Roof Shelters is an attempt to get real biodiversity-supporting green roofs onto small buildings and structures in the city. It’s a gap the

big green roof companies are not interested in. But to us it’s a real opportunity to spread things at a grass roots level. Sanneke Duijf · I

led a group of second year Graphic Design students from AKV | St. Joost Academy as part of a SlowLab research programme in a neighbourhood in Amsterdam•. Working in teams, they were developing prototypes for a Slow Loket, a mobile information point to capture the expertise and potential of that area. This was a local platform for interaction and dialogue, a place to share and exchange ideas, obstacles, opportunities, resources and more. The challenge for the students was to find the right strategies to make contact, inform, gather stories and make connections between the Lloyd Hotel – the centre of the project – and the neighbourhood. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/ 2011/10/19/slow-loket/)

Maziar Raein · There

are so many things happening at the moment. On our blog we have surveyed a range of examples. I’m inspired by the brilliant Dutch traffic engineer, Hans Monderman who took away the traffic light system. He showed that instead of giving information, you take away information and put responsibility on the road users and this has increased road safety. (www.socialdesignresponse. com/archive/)

Clare Brass · The organisation I set up is called the SEED foundation, which stands for Social Environmental Enterprise with Design. We have been

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Socially responsive design is not oppositional to market considerations but prioritises social considerations over those of the market. Adam Thorpe

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working on a project over the past couple of years called the ‘Food Loop Project’ asking if it is possible to create a design-led enterprise that addresses the issue of food waste in urban environments? We thought that picking food waste would be a big enough problem to generate an income from it. So we tried to design a way of capturing the value of food waste, which is very valuable. It is actually worth right now at least £165 per tonne and this will rise to about £225 per tonne in the next couple of years due to EU legislations. We started looking at people’s attitudes and behaviours towards waste and to services and set about changing people’s perspective on waste. So, it is about helping the community to take ownership of its own waste streams and to turn them into value streams (http://foodloop.org.uk/). Marco van Hout · An example that immediately comes to my mind is a prototype concept for an app that we created some years ago called ‘Snapje’. This app engages both parents and children with autism. The Snapje concept has been developed to enable children to get skills in emotion recognition in relation to the context. A parent can take photos of situations that have an emotional meaning. Photos can be taken of familiar people, but also from the child itself. On the one hand it is very useful to learn from emotions of others in relation to the context. On the other hand, it is useful to learn the relation between the context and an emotion through own experiences of the emotion. (www.emotiondiary. com/snapje/) Adam Thorpe · Designs against crime like the M stand designed by Bikeoff (an initiative of the Design Against Crime Research Centre, University of the Arts London), are the result of thousands of observations of cyclists parking their bikes and over a year of cycle theft research investigating the most secure way of parking to resist common bike theft techniques. The main design driver for the stands was increasing the security of cyclists locking practices to reduce cycle theft and increase cycling. In addressing this societal concern new product innovation was achieved. (www.bikeoff.org/)

What does it feel like to participate in socially responsive design? We wanted to understand from our interviewees how being involved in socially responsive design is different to traditional design in terms of the emotional feedback from the process. Sanneke Duijf · Doing socially responsive design feels inclusive. Design is part of our lifestyle and part of the world we live in so therefore we should include this world actively in our design processes. Next to that, it is quite satisfying engaging with users and receive responses from them, to acquire an insight into their situation to empower them to take action. Maziar Raein · It feels more meaningful. There is a sense

of satisfaction, a sense of learning and a sense of being part of something bigger. It’s also fun and con fusing and playful. There is a lot of experimenting that goes wrong. It’s very active, fast and messy. The designer moves from a monologue to a dialogue

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Duncan Kramer – Green Roof Shelter, Green Roof Shelters Ltd. www.greenroofshelters.co.uk

Duncan Kramer – PlantLock, Front Yard Company. www.frontyardcompany.co.uk

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Sanneke Duijf â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Slow Lloyd Parade project, fortune-telling www.socialdesignresponse.com/2011/10/19/slow-loket

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Residents collects food waste

Residents and staff benefit from food produced

Caddies from the estate are collected by staff

Waste composted on site Fruit and vegetables planted on the estate

Seedlings are planted

Compost is seasoned

Clare Brass – Food Loop diagram, SEED Foundation. www.foodloop.org.uk

with other stakeholders and the world around them. What is unnerving for the designer is that aesthetics take a back seat. In graphic design, many young designers now say that they don’t care about style. The issue isn’t about colour or fonts but it’s about the idea behind it, which is unnerving but exciting. It’s about aesthetics serving a concept. Clare Brass · I’ve always had good fun. Part of the fun has always been working with people, now it’s an even more critical component. When you are doing a traditional design project where a product is at the end of the line, you know where you’re going and what your end role is. But with this kind of work, you know what you want to achieve, but the goalposts are moving all the time, things change. For example, when there was an election everything changed for the food loop project. It’s really scary. The other difficult thing is earning a living with social innovation. Marco van Hout · Engaging

people, making things more pleasurable is one thing, making a change in people’s social context, wellbeing and even happiness is a completely different story and obviously rewarding. I am extra proud that my fellow board member (of the Design & Emotion Society, ed.) Pieter Desmet has initiated the Delft Institute of Positive Design, which aims to stimulate the development of knowledge that supports designers in their attempts to design for happiness, for human flourishing. (http://studiolab.ide.tudelft.nl/diopd/)

Duncan Kramer · It

feels normal.

Adam Thorpe · Socially responsive design activity feels relevant and contemporary. But it’s not always easy and clear cut. Complex and contradictory might also be relevant descriptors at times. What designers are responsible for are the decisions they make and they should at least understand as much as they can about the likely impacts of their proposals and even consult with those affected by the proposals to try and ensure that their proposals have the desired impacts.

Can you give us a scenario for socially responsive design in 2020? What kind of futures do our interviews predict for this approach to design? Maziar Raein · Paola

Antonelli said, “In 25 years designers will be at the nexus of things”. More and more design will be focused around social needs (e.g. water). There will be more diversity in design, with designers working alongside business people. There’ll be many more design thinkers. We will be questioning systems and situations. Designers will have to take stronger lines and take more direct stands. The days for the bigger agencies with moral ambivalence will go and we’ll move towards network based, smaller firms with people working together around ideas they share. Because we have become saturated with products around us, my students say, “I’ve got enough things I don’t need more”. They’ve grown up with ‘more’ as teenagers and they now seem to want less and to do more. I think this will spill into the way they work.

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People are increasingly looking for products and services that fulfil life goals that go beyond material wealth and are more valuable for social cohesion, health and general well-being. Marco van Hout

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Sanneke Duijf · In

the future socially responsive design will be an integral part of design education. I think schools are starting to expose students more and more to society by placing projects in real life contexts, often working together with (commercial) businesses but also with governmental institutions. Yet better would be to work more socially. The organisation Design in Society is a good example for that; it’s an interdisciplinary program for students using design strategy as a method to tackle complex urban issues. (www.designinsociety.nl)

Clare Brass · Our traditional economic model doesn’t work and we’re finding it out and it’s painful. I think there’s an appetite, there’s a lot happening here, not only in the design field, there’s a lot happening in every walk of life. There is a spirit of unrest and because we know now much better how the system works and that there is a lot of unfairness, we are in a much better position to change things. I think today’s generation of design schools are starting the ball rolling, people are launching, new principles, new ideas, new concepts and we’re getting there. Duncan Kramer · Hopefully

there will be fewer designers twatting around. There’s so much that needs doing. Everyone should ask more questions of the people living around them. And listen to the answers. For socially useful design to succeed, I sometimes think it’s best for it to find new ways of using existing commercial frameworks. Maybe borrowing the tools of the mainstream and carving a radical niche alongside it.

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Marco van Hout · I like the description on the website of the Delft Institute of Positive Design: “Since the industrial revolution, all of our society – our workplaces, homes, transportation, and communication, have increasingly become infused with design... Research has shown that our dishwashers, computers, radios, cars, and other products we are surrounded with, do not make us particularly happy.” People are increasingly looking for products and services that fulfil life goals that go beyond material wealth and are more valuable for social cohesion, health and general well-being. I believe in the future a lot of designers will want to be part of a group of change-makers. We won’t be designing anymore for the sake of designing, we will only be designing for a purpose, such as meeting real needs. Between now and 2020, it is design’s time to shine. I think socially responsive design and related approaches will have to be leading in this movement. Luckily, I see lots of signals that illustrate exactly that. Adam Thorpe · Much

of what we perceive as ‘future’ issues are visible in the present. We are preparing for ‘more of the same’ as far as social scenarios to be addressed by design, perhaps with more intensity and urgency. Design scenarios that address issues linked to an ageing population, zero oil scenarios and rising population numbers and increasing population density. The changes in climate and weather will also likely result in changing environmental scenarios. Conclusion So to connect the dots, what is socially responsive design? In line with societal changes, we are seeing designers that are forging new roles as facilitators, mediators and change agents. Design thinking is moving out of the box and into the world. Practices are shifting away from previous industrial design models that were primarily market-led towards purpose-led ways of intervening and offering solutions for specific issues. Rather than looking at people as mere passive consumers, they are included as active participants and offered a chance to co-design the lifestyles and livelihoods we want. Design is therefore becoming entangled in the lives of its users and collaborators. Since context and stakeholders seem to be so central to these design processes, the outcomes might not be so easily recognisable as an Eames chair or a Koolhaas building. It is more likely to be an unassuming community garden, a collaborative toolkit or even an intangible form of collective knowledge. As such, these designs might not necessarily be ‘beautiful’ in a traditional design sense. But as design approaches they enable empathy, belonging, exchange and engagement – all important ingredients for social cohesion. We might therefore say that it’s design that champions the empathetic over iconic. Meeting real needs, being involved in something bigger, feeling that one’s work is meaningful and having fun seem to be strong drivers for socially responsive designers. The question is how can we make this an accessible and viable route for more designers to pursue?

London-based Hannah Jones is programme leader of MA Design Futures and a metadesign researcher in the department of design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her doctoral research explores awkward space in cities. (www.gold.ac.uk/design/staff/ jones/; http://metadesigners.org/) London-based Anette Lundebye is a design strategist, researcher and facilitator. She is a lecturer at Regent’s College in London, and lectures on design for sustainable futures, Socially Responsive Design (SRVD) and Metadesign at various institutions in the UK and in Scandinavia. (www.lundebyetham.com; http://metadesigners.org) London-based Adam Thorpe is a Reader in Socially Responsive Design and Innovation at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, London and Co-founder Vexed Generation and Vexed Design Ltd. (www.csm.arts.ac.uk/research/staffresearchprofiles/ adamthorpe/) London-based Clare Brass is a service designer and social entrepreneur. She is founder of SEED Foundation and currently developing the Food Loop project. She is Head of SustainRCA, at the Royal College of Art, and is Senior Design Tutor in IDE (Innovation Design Engineering). (www.seedfoundation.org.uk/; www.foodloop.org.uk) London-based Duncan Kramer is a designer with long experience of design solutions for public space, and director at Material, a co-founder of the Front Yard Company, a design-led UK manu facturing enterprise as well as a director at Green Roof Shelters Ltd. (www.frontyardcompany.co.uk; http://greenroofshelters.co.uk/) Oslo-based Maziar Raein is a graphic designer and Associate Professor and Head of MA Design at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/archive/) Utrecht & Oslo-based Sanneke Duijf is a Socially Responsive Designer and researcher. She is founder of ‘Solution Office’ and teaches at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway as well as AKV St Joost in the Netherlands. (http://cargocollective. com/sannekeduijf/Solution-Office) Netherlands-based Marco van Hout is creative director of SusaGroup. He works with companies and organisations such as: Bic, Energizer, Fidelity, KLM, Microsoft, Philips and Unilever. Marco is a board member of the International Design for Emotion Society and a frequent public speaker, visiting lecturer and workshop facilitator. (www.design-emotion.com; www.marcovanhout.com; www.susagroup.com)

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London Calling

London – Olympic Games and Design

2012 is a big year for London, with the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, followed by the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. As I write, Hyde Park has been transformed into a pop temple where Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Madonna – to name but a few – attract tens of thousands of fans. The BBC Proms have just started and opposite the Royal Albert Hall the Sochi Experience 2014 – an authentic ice-skating rink – is under construction. The Olympic Africa House is also springing up in Hyde Park. While with the Holland Heineken House in the gigantic Alexandra Palace – Ally Pally for Londoners – the Netherlands can present the biggest Olympic party venue. Immediately after the Paralympic Games day-to-day life will continue with the London Festival of Design and, simultaneously, the London Fashion Week starting on 14 September. They will be followed by the contemporary art fair FRIEZE on 11 October.

vivre, at least for those who could afford it. The first cars appeared on the roads. Elegant liners transported the wealthy in luxury and the poor in straitened circumstances over the oceans. Trains crossed continents, following the example of the Orient Express. It was also the era of Art Nouveau with Jan Toorop and Gustav Klimt. Arts and Crafts held sway with a romantic, almost anti-industrial attitude. The Olympic Games were first held in London in 1908. They were actually supposed to be held in Rome in that year, but the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906 had put an end to those plans. If you look at photographs of the time it is hard to avoid the impression that, to judge from the participants, sport was a passion for the rich: made to measure instead of ready to wear. The Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam in 1928. In the intervening twenty years the world had changed considerably. The First World War had put an end to the established order. The Russian and Chinese revolutions

Jan van Weijen Head, Department of Dutchness Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London

Louis Smith (UK), gymnast at the Olympic Games 2012 in Olympic formalwear.

London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. That is not surprising given that until sixty-five years ago the British Empire encompassed a quarter of the globe. People come here from all over the world to do business, look up relatives, work, study, or just as visitors. Besides the permanent attractions such as the Tower and Buckingham Palace, there are above all the many shows, museums, con ferences, exhibitions, restaurants, concerts and festivals that work like a magnet. More than 30 million tourists arrive in London every year. According to Tripadvisor, London is the top tourist attraction in the world.

had caused the status quo to shake even more. A weary Europe allowed the United States to rise to prominence. The world was ready for new ideas for a good many more people. De Stijl, Modernism, Art Deco, Bauhaus, the radio, the cinema were far more geared to mass consumption. Design appeared everywhere: cars, radios, airplanes, electrical devices, but also architecture. It was the era of Metropolis, the science fiction film by Fritz Lang, of the Rietveld House, and the works of Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg. With its simple and severe lines, the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium designed by Jan Wils is a symbol of the optimistic spirit of the time.

Olympic Games The Olympic Games as we know them go back to the nineteenth century. That was the era of La Belle Époque that celebrated la joie de

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Another twenty years on, the world was in turmoil once more. In 1948, the bombed city of London hosted the Olympic Games for

the second time. Gone was the optimism of Amsterdam. The Games were marked by rationing and scarcity. And yet, it was precisely those games that were a triumph of the Olympic ideal: if you want to make it happen, it can happen.

the start. Many Dutch companies have contributed to its success. 2,400 trees from the Netherlands have been planted in the Olympic village. Roses cultivated in the Netherlands and hardened in England will be woven into the bouquets of the winners.

from that of Metropolis. It is a fact that the creative and cultural industry will form an even larger part of our economy than it already does today. The Dutch government has designated this sector as a priority. Courses in the Netherlands like those offered in Eindhoven, Arnhem, Rotterdam and Amsterdam are among the most highly regarded in the world. Dutch Design is in demand and is popular. By comparison with 2009, the Dutch contribution to the London Design Festival has increased by five times. I am delighted with this trend. The embassy has dedicated its efforts to promoting Dutch Design in London since 2008. We did so for the first time together with Connecting the Dots in 2011. With all those dots the government can no longer do it all by itself, so it is a real pleasure for me to wish David Heldt and his team every success in connecting the dots of Dutch Design in London during the London Design Festival. Here’s to 2028!

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London 2012’s Olympic medals designed by British artist David Watkins. Photograph: LOCOG

Design did not play such a major role. Alison Settle, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, thought that the Olympic outfits of the British athletes left much to be desired: ‘Couldn’t we have organised a design com petition?’ she asked. The Netherlands could not have put on a better performance. Fanny Blankers-Koen, the flying housewife, won four golden medals – in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80 metre hurdle race and 4x100 relay race. The International Athletic Federation acclaimed her ‘Female athlete of the century’ in 1999.

And now it is 2012 London is once again hosting the Olympic Games. Third time lucky. Since 2005 all the preparations have been under way for a memorable Olympic Games 2012. East London has been entirely overhauled. Design plays a major role. Stella McCartney has listened to Alison Settle’s plea and the GB team is dressed in her designs.

2012 is a harvest year for Dutch Design. The always reticent Financial Times published a eulogy of the Design Academy Eindhoven on 9 June: ‘Why Lovers of Design go Dutch’ was the heading of the article. Libby Sellers, who has a gallery in Berners Street, a side street off Oxford Street, attributes that success to ‘the liberal-minded attitude of the tutors and their interpretation of design. It’s not just about design but about developing broader political and social issues. They come at design from a very critical perspective.’ The graduation designs from Eindhoven were in the shop window of Selfridges for six weeks in 2011 and were auctioned at Sotheby’s in Bond Street. Not bad. Success in London confers an international reputation. One good article in the British media is worth more than any advertising campaign.

Olympic Fire The Olympic locations have been laid out in a very responsible way. Postindustrial London has been cleaned up, the polluted ground has been removed, cleaned or covered up where possible. The River Lea is now a paragon of environment-friendliness. Trees and meadows adorn the former industrial sites. New districts are accommodating Olympic stars to make way for genuine Cockneys once the games are over. The Netherlands has been closely involved with the Olympic Games in London right from

In the meantime the Netherlands is preparing to host the Olympic Games again in 2028, a hundred years after the Games in Amsterdam. Design plays a major role. The motto is: as much as possible with as little as possible. Recycling is a top priority. Of course, it is sports performances that count the most. An organisation has been set up to raise the Netherlands to an Olympic level again. Let’s join in working towards this. Amsterdam 1928 was one of the most optimistic games ever. The world in 2028 will look very different

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Items, the conscience of Dutch design Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie interviewed by Tracy Metz Photography by Ilco Kemmere For three decades now the magazine Items has been the Netherlands’ design conscience. Or as its full title says: ‘Items, the Dutch view on Design’. Items is serious and thoughtful; it is more about the culture of design than about the business of the market. “In our pages you won’t find the usual overstyled parade of chairs that you will in the home decoration glossies,” says editor-in-chief Max Bruinsma.

Bruinsma, trained as an art historian, has been writing about design since 1985. He led Items once before, in 1988 and 1989. Between 1997 and 2000 he was the editor-in-chief of the London-based graphic design magazine Eye. He has published books and curated exhibitions in this field and teaches at St. Joost academy in Breda. Since 2009 he is back at the helm of Items. Pao Lien Djie, also an art historian, has been with Items’ editorial team since 1997 and is now the managing editor. Items appears bi-monthly in Dutch, although the magazine is planning to enlarge its audience both at home and abroad by issuing a digital English version later this year. It is the only Dutch magazine, and one of the few internationally, to cover all the design disciplines: (interior) architecture, fashion, graphic design, product design, new media. Some articles delve into the nuts and bolts that are particular to a specific field; others are broader cultural critiques. Max Bruinsma agrees with Paola Antonelli’s statement that “design is a way to understand the world around us.” That is what all the design disciplines ultimately have in common, he says. “The craft of designing is essentially the craft of organizing meaningful structure. Of course I like a beautiful object, but as a critic I always want to know: what was the brief, what is the context for which it is being made? I want to enjoy, but I also want to understand.” The newest issue of Items has as its theme ‘cultural identities’. Not the usual critique of nationalism, but an investigation into the ways cultural institutions present themselves visually, with reviews of new or enlarged museums like Eye and the Stedelijk in Amsterdam. “The first thing a cultural building exhibits, is its own stance vis-à-vis culture,” one of the articles states. The previous issue revolved around the theme of ‘Network’. Now that the worldwide web con nects all sorts of information, we no longer live with but rather in a world of networks. Bruinsma: “Designers have the responsibility to make networks not only functional, but also visible. If you live in a networked society, you are better off being the spider than the fly.” Like all print media Items feels the ground shifting under its feet. “Even publications with a dedicated public like ours notice that readers now ‘graze’,” says Pao Lien Djie. “Instead of subscribing they pick and choose in the kiosk.” So Items, too, is approaching its readers in all sorts of new ways. It is not only active on Twitter and Facebook, but also organizes real-time events under the name ‘Items Live’ with interviews and presentations loosely connected to the current issue. Last year, they also made a free iPad app called Items Dutch Design Graduates dedicated to their annual selection of the final exam work of graduates from the various academies in Holland and in Belgian Flanders. During Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven this year, they will issue a new version of the app and organize an exhibition with the selection of this year’s graduation projects. The magazine’s content and form is a collab orative effort – the designers are integral part of the editorial team. The magazine was restyled early this year and the lay-out has been entrusted to

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Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie

Premsela did a good job in promoting Dutch design. Although they sometimes seemed to promote themselves a bit too hard in the meantime. Pao Lien Djie

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Pao Lien Djie and Max Bruinsma at work.

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a young collective called Almanak. Its members – Barbara Hennequin, Jeremy Jansen and Rob van den Nieuwenhuizen – also work separately on other commissions, but join forces in designing Items. In virtually the entire thirty years of its existence Items has been subsidized as a cultural effort by the government, via the Mondriaan Foundation. Have they ever felt that this restricted their editorial freedom? “On the contrary,” says Pao Lien Djie. “Everyone is so enamored of ‘the market’ nowadays that we forget that the market primarily has its own interest at heart. There is nothing wrong with that. But the government is by definition more neutral. Never once did they use their subsidy to try to influence what we did or wrote.” And what about the role of the Premsela Foundation, set up in 2002 to stimulate Dutch design through lectures, debates and exhibitions? “We operate independently of each other, of course, and Premsela did a good job in promoting Dutch design. Although they sometimes seemed to promote themselves a bit too hard in the meantime.” Businesswise the magazine has had its shares of ups and downs, especially in recent years. In 2003 its publisher BIS was taken over by a large publishing house, which sold the magazine in 2007 to a start-up publisher named De Jonge Hond (‘the Young Dog’) which tanked in 2009. That triggered Bruinsma and Djie to take the title into their own hands: the magazine now operates as an independent foundation. Recently, it also forged a partnership with its new printer, Jubels, which involves, among other things, the development of hybrids of offset and digital printing and a broader spectrum of media and publications than the magazine alone. How do they see the future? A brief silence. “Difficult,’’ says Pao Lien Djie. “The government has decided that it will no longer subsidize cultural magazines, including Items. To us this seems inconsistent with the fact that the same government recognizes the creative industry as one of the nine top sectors of the Dutch economy and has reserved 20 million euros to reinforce it. It is essential to have a podium for critical reflection on the disciplines that make up this sector we find so important.” Max Bruinsma: “Criticism is central to design. I consider critics to be a kind of civil servants. They provide information and insight which is valuable for society at large. As old-fashioned as that may sound, it means that they have a responsibility to be committed and independent.” Just because money is tight doesn’t mean that the mission of Items is any less important. Djie: “Quite the contrary. It does mean that we have to become more creative in forging collaborations with partners who share our stance on the cultural importance of design and the arts in general.” Bruinsma: “With every shift in society and culture, we redefine the place of the magazine. But we refuse to even consider the possibility that Items could disappear. That is simply not an option.”

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Criticism is central to design. I consider critics to be a kind of civil servants. They provide information and insight which is valuable for society at large. Max Bruinsma

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Favourite everyday object of Johan Selbing Architect, Amsterdam

Matylda Krzykowsk, Maastricht 路 Matylda Krzykowski always knew she would have worked in the art field. As in the youth she wanted to become a dancer she choose then to study Product Design at Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Maastricht. In 2009 Krzykowski established her studio there. She found it hard to state just one favourite designer but then cited Martino Gamper. www.matyldakrzykowski.com

Anke Bernotat and Jan Jacob Borstlap, Amsterdam 路 Bernotat&Co. saw its origins in 2007, and was formed by the designers Anke Bernotat and Jan Jacob Borstlap. Bernotat graduated in Industrial Design at Bergische Universit盲t Wuppertal in Germany, Borstlap, graduated in Industrial Design Engineering at UT Delft. Between their favourite designers they cite Achille Castiglioni, for his humour and freedom that he put in his works. www.bernotat.eu

Doreen Westphal, Eindhoven 路 Doreen Westphal is a truly European designer: living in various countries, studying and experiencing different perspectives and cultures. She grew up in Germany and finished her studies at Nottingham Trent University in Theatre Design. Soon she established her studio in Amsterdam in 2010. Currently, she is based in Eindhoven. Between her favourites designers she cite Dirk van der Kooij. www.doreenwestphal.com

Dave Keune, Amsterdam · If Dave Keune had not become a designer, he probably would have followed his child dream to be a jet-fighter pilot. Therefore we’re very happy he established his studio in 2008, after choosing a less extreme lifestyle, graduating in Design Academy Eindhoven. Between his favourites designers he mentions the American duo Charles and Ray Eames. www.davekeune.com

Hester Van Dijk and Reinder Bakker, Amsterdam 路 Overtreders W is an Amsterdam based studio by which was created in 2006. Both designers studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven, even though at a very young age they both had the dream to become biologist. Between their favourite designers they cite Terunobu Fujimori for his use of traditional and artisanal ways of building in contemporary architecture, Raumlabor for their playful social design and Junya Ishigami for giving a central role to greenery in architecture. www.overtreders-w.nl

rotsoord 3 utrecht the netherlands info@pastoe.com www.pastoe.com

SM05 design cees braakman one of the first chairs to be entirely fabricated from steel wire. The timeless design from 1958 is back in production. BOXES design studio pastoe an 9mm slim body, which is mounted on the wall. The bodies are available in various heights and widths to 36cm deep, and available in any colours and finishes from the Pastoe collection. * also shown VISION design pierre mazairac & karel boonzaaijer

Connecting Creativity: Dutch design crossing Europe from London to Istanbul Nurten Meriçer, Director Dutch Design Desk İstanbul

In 2012, Turkey and The Netherlands celebrate 400 years of diplomatic relations. These age-old ties have become stronger in recent years: the volume of trade between the two countries has tripled in the past decade. The creative industries provide one of the strongest foundations for Turkish-Dutch relations. Today, the textile and fashion industry represents one of the most promising sectors for Turkish-Dutch economic collaboration. Increasingly, Dutch architects, designers and fashion designers are finding their way onto the Turkish market, working for Turkish clients, companies and governmental institutions, often collaborating with Turkish designers.

Supporting this trend, 2012 marks the start of the Dutch Design Desk Istanbul, which will act as a connector between The Netherlands and Turkey, fostering trade relations and collaborations in the field of the creative industries. In 2012, a varied programme of activities involving Dutch architecture, design and fashion unfolds through September to December, with Istanbul as chief location. Season begins with the exhibition Connecting Concepts by Premsala opening at Istanbul Design Week, September 25 – 29. October brings Creative Bridges Exhibition, SALON/Istanbul and IABR/Making City exhibitions organised around the First Istanbul Design Biennale, October 13 – December 12.

beautiful sailing ship, Clipper Stad Amsterdam, which will be hosting workshops, catwalks, design shows and parties. During the week, a comprehensive set of events and activities will also bring Dutch and Turkish designers around the common theme of Urban Transformation. Together with the Mayors, a multisectoral trade delegation including a large creative chapter organised by the Netherlands-Turkish Business Association (Netuba) in cooper ation with DutchDFA and its partners (BNA, BNO, Premsela, NAI and MODINT) will be in town. The Dutch Design Desk Istanbul will provide local support and services for individual companies.

www.dutchdesigndeskistanbul.com

Skyline of Istanbul. Photo Şebnem Aslanbay

Month will continue with a strong Dutch accent in the week October 14 – 18 with visiting Mayors of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and the advertorial

the dots Connecting the Dots showcases all Dutch presentations at the Milan Design Week 2013

Claim now your advertisement space in the Milan 2013 issue and receive 20% discount*! · Reach design professionals all around the world · Reach the entire Dutch design scene · The Dots magazine is kept used as a catalogue during the whole year Connecting the Dots – Milan 2013 comes out at the beginning of April and is distributed in the Netherlands and in Milan during the Milan Design Week (9 – 14 April 2013). Please contact us for more information: connecting@thedots.nl · t. +31 (0)20 893 28 86 www.thedots.nl * 20% discount before November 2012

Connecting the Dots Yearbook Dutch Design London 2012 Representing all Dutch presentations during the London Design Week 13 – 23 September 2012 Connecting the Dots publishes and presents Dutch designers and designculture internationally during key design events and fairs.

Connecting the Dots magazine Koningsstraat 43c · 1011 ET Amsterdam The Netherlands · t +31 (0)20 8932886 connecting@thedots.nl · www.thedots.nl www.twitter.com/thedots_mag Editor in Chief David Heldt david@thedots.nl Contributing editiors Anna Bates, Ineke Hans, Hannah Jones, Daniela De Lorenzo, Anette Lundebye, Tracy Metz, Jan van Weijen, Heleen Willemsen Translation Studio Mason & Egmond Graphic design Haller Brun www.hallerbrun.eu Cover photo Imme van der Haak www.immevanderhaak.nl Illustrations everyday objects Finger drawings on an iPad Contributing photographers Judith Jockel www.judithjockel.com Ilco Kemmere www.ilcokemmere.nl Hege Saebjornsen www.hegesaebjornsen.com Printed by Control Media Communication & Press Luc Deleau luc@thedots.nl · t +31 (0)6 52472990 Advertising David Heldt t +31 (0)20 8932886 Commissioned by NL Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation

© Connecting the Dots 2012 All rights reserved. Copyrights on the photographs, illustrations, drawings, and written material in this publication are owned by the respective photographer(s), the designer(s) and the author(s). No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without permission of the publisher and designers, photographers and authors involved.

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