Dutch Design Week (also known as DDW) is the largest annual design event in Northern Europe. It presents work and concepts from more than 2,600 designers to more than 355,000 visitors from home and abroad. Hosted in
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,[Netherlands
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, the event is about Dutch design. The event takes place around the last week of October and is a nine-day event with exhibitions, studio visits, workshops, seminars, and parties at many venues dispersed throughout the city.
Due to its
industrial character, hosting companies like
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
,
Philips Design and
DAF
Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...
, Eindhoven sets itself the goal to become the national industry- and design capital. Also, hosting the
Design Academy Eindhoven and the
Eindhoven University of Technology
The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc ...
, the city produces a profound bases for innovation. In order to communicate these outcomes, the Dutch Design Week is organized.
The initiative started twelve years ago as a
non-commercial fair where
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
, industry and
business could talk to each other on 'neutral' ground. Since then, the event grew rapidly each year, to 355,000 visitors in 2018.
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
Faculty may refer to:
* Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage)
* Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States)
* Faculty (instrument), an instrument or warrant ...
at the
Eindhoven University of Technology
The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc ...
, where successful and well-visited expositions are organized.
Whereas the main goal remains to create a non-commercial event, many
conflicts of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations ...
and the rapid growth did contribute to a more commercial approach since 2007.
Pop venue
Effenaar and classical music venue
Muziekgebouw Frits Philips
Muziekgebouw Frits Philips is a concert hall in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The venue is named after Frits Philips
Frederik Jacques "Frits" Philips (16 April 1905 – 5 December 2005) was the fourth chairman of the board of directors of the Dut ...
both organize the musical program DDW Music around the festival with live performances as well as exhibitions related to
experimental musical instrument
An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...
s,
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.
Ambassadors
Since 2009 Dutch Design Week picks multiple ambassadors from the field who are advocates of Dutch Design
See also
*
Dutch Design
References
External links
{{commons category, Dutch Design Week
Dutch Design Week
Dutch design
Culture in Eindhoven
Industrial design
Events in Eindhoven