There are very few design events, let alone design weeks, that take over their home city like the Dutch Design Week (DDW). Hosted each October in Eindhoven, it sees 2,600 designers from around the world display their work at more than 120 venues across town. This year’s edition, which wrapped up at the weekend, saw the city’s showrooms, studios and creative hubs – such as the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Piet Hein Eek – packed with creatives and design-enthusiasts.

The event speaks to the city’s quiet emergence as the undisputed design capital of the Netherlands. Once a Philips company town, Eindhoven is now the heart of the country’s creative economy, outcompeting Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The Design Academy, the Technical University’s design faculty and a thriving tech sector have made the industry part of the city’s DNA – and DDW only reinforces that. About a third of the festival’s funding is public, reflecting a civic understanding that design shapes societies. And, of course, the city doesn’t mind the 300,000 visitors that come each year.

One of the many things that sets DDW apart from the crowded calendar of design festivals is its bottom-up character. Born from the need for Dutch designers to show their work outside Milan’s commercial fairgrounds, the event remains content driven rather than sales focused. “We are not here to sell, we are here to show what design can be,” says Miriam van der Lubbe, the event’s co-founder and creative head. That ethos runs through every installation, from worms digesting architecture to experiments in regenerative materials. Dutch design has always been pragmatic and honest – designer-driven, not brand-led – with a focus on solving problems rather than creating desire for items.

For visitors, DDW offers a glimpse of the future: young graduates tackling global challenges and a city proving that design can be both an economic engine and a social lifeline. In a saturated design calendar, it is refreshing to have events that not only look at what design is but what design can be.

Here are three highlights from this year’s edition of Dutch Design Week.

1.
Kiki & Joost
Celebrated Dutch design duo Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk marked their 25th anniversary with a lively, hands-on exhibition in their Eindhoven studio space. The show brought their creative world to life through colourful woven tapestries made with the Textiel Museum, live screen-printing sessions and even clay-blasting experiments. It offered a rare, sensory insight into their process – craft-focused, playful and deeply personal – something not often seen at large design festivals.

2.
‘Class of 25’
At Eindhoven’s Klokgebouw, the Class of 25 exhibition shone a spotlight on emerging designers from Dutch academies and beyond. Curated as a glimpse into design’s near future, it showcased innovative material research, bold digital experiments and projects addressing sustainability and social change. Reflecting DDW’s theme, “Past Present Possible”, the show captured the excitement and promise of a new generation shaping what design can become.

3.
‘Forward Furniture’
Curated by Liv Vaisberg, Forward Furniture explored the future of collectible and functional design through the work of dozens of forward-thinking creators. The exhibition blended art, craft and innovation, showcasing everything from special editions to conceptual pieces. Designers reimagined materials such as recycled plastics and bio-based composites, offering a fresh, imaginative take on where furniture design is heading next.

Perti Burtsoff is Monocle’s Helsinki correspondent. 

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