Dutch Design Week (also known as DDW) is an event about Dutch design, hosted in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The event takes place around the last week of October and is a nine-day event with exhibitions, studio visits, workshops, seminars, and parties across the city.
The event hosts companies including Philips, Philips Design and DAF, as well as the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The initiative began in 2002 as a non-commercial fair and by 2018 had 355,000 visitors.
The DDW consists of around 120 venues. The main venues during the event are among others the Klokgebouw (Strijp-S), Design Academy Eindhoven and the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where successful and well-visited expositions are organized.
Whereas the main goal remains to create a non-commercial event, many conflicts of interest and the rapid growth did contribute to a more commercial approach since 2007.
Pop venue Effenaar and classical music venue Muziekgebouw Frits Philips both organize the musical program DDW Music around the festival with live performances as well as exhibitions related to experimental musical instruments, sound art and sound installations.
Dutch Design Week 2020 was an online-only event. A digital festival, initially planned to work alongside a programme of studio tours and socially distanced activities, became the centrepiece of the festival as all physical events had been cancelled due to a rise in coronavirus cases in the city.
Theme Since the 2012 edition Dutch Design Week picks a yearly theme overarching the entire week. +Dutch Design Week themesYearTheme2012Enter a Brave new World2013Now Future2014UP2015What if...2016The Making of2017Stretch2018If not us, then who?2019If not now, then when?2020The New Intimacy2021The Greater Number2022Get Set2023Picture This2024Real Unreal
Ambassadors Since 2009 Dutch Design Week picks multiple ambassadors from the field who are advocates of Dutch Design. +Dutch Design Week AmbassadorsYearAmbassadors2009Leonne Cuppen2010Roland Bird, Marijn van der Poll2011Miriam van der Lubbe, Bruno Ninaber van Eyben2012Robert Bronwasser, Joost van Bleiswijk, Kiki van Eijk2013Daan Roosegaarde, Piet Hein Eek2014Scholten & Baijings, Arne Hendriks2015Makkink & Bey, Koert van Mensvoort2016Maarten Baas & Bas van Abel2017Marcus Fairs, Winy Maas, Lonny van Ryswyck, Nadine Sterk2018Ravi Naidoo, Wendy Plomp, Laurens van den Acker2019Stefano Boeri, Alice Rawsthorn, Jalila Essaïdi, Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta2020Lideweij Edelkoort, Sabine Marcelis, Sean Carney2021Floris Alkemade, Natsai Audrey Chieza, Christien Meindertsma2022Formafantasma, Marjan van Aubel2023Yinka Ilori, Muzus, Stefan Diez
See also Dutch Design
References
External links
Dutch Design Week