DAE Graduation Show 2023. A Superyacht Encounter by Shai Ben-Ami and Charles Weinberg – ©Ronald Smits, all photos courtesy of Design Academy Eindhoven.
Design – During Dutch Design Week, Design Academy Eindhoven offers a sneak-a-peek into the values, the aesthetics and the commitments of the next generation of designers. The DAE Graduation Show 2023 features over 200 works of Bachelor and Master graduates. Enrico Zilli, Archipanic’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief, has selected ten standing-out projects.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Dutch Design Week 2023 on Archipanic.
CHOLONIZACIÓN by Tin
©Femke Reijerman.
Three centuries of Spanish colonisation led to the oppression and exploitation of indigenous cultures and civilisations, as well as Cholos, those who are racially identified as being in-between. Through collaborative field research in Bolivia, Perú and Ecuador involving an economist, anthropologist, and architect, Tin Ayala proposes the concept of Cholonización. The multimedia installation and performances “seek to promote radical creative hybrid designs disrupting and reshaping dominant cultural norms.”
Discarded Products by Willem Zwiers
©Nicole Marnati.
“Look closely at this imposing furniture made from a marble-like material. Soon, letters, even whole sentences, start to appear on their straight sides and contrasting flowing edges.” Through experimentation with discarded books, Dutch designer Willem Zwiers explores the transformative potential of discarded materials. He sliced the books into parts, bent the pages and hardened the material using a water and wood glue mix.
Our Beloved and Sacred Sun by Adam Bialek
Our beloved and sacred sun by Adam Bialek – ©Carlfried Verwaayen, courtesy of Design Academy Eindhoven.
Adam Bialek aims to restore our relationships with the natural elements, starting with the most profound one – the Sun. For the Our Beloved and Sacred Sun project, he created a monolith made from an egg yolk biomaterial that honours the sun as a symbol of life and energy, seeking to restore our relationship with natural elements. Through a process of petrifying and crystallizing egg yolks, Adam Bialek developed a delicate biomaterial. When touched by sunlight, the monolith glows with warm amber light, honouring and reigniting the primal feelings evoked by our sun. When buried in the soil, the monolith biodegrades, fertilizing its final resting place.
Cosmic Dancer by Dace Sūna
©Ronald Smits.
Latvian designer and maker Dace Sūna presents Cosmic Dancer, an immersive installation that invites visitors to meditative contemplation of life cycles: creation, preservation, destruction, and rebirth. “Since the first detonation of an atomic bomb in 1945, humankind has lived in the nuclear age in which we need not only to comprehend our individual death but also communal death.” Visitors are seated around a water pool that acts as a sensory magnifier to guide their attention to a particle represented by a drop of water. “Focusing on how a single water drop cycles through change, a sense of self and orientation in space fades away, resulting in an experience of oneness with the whole.”
Abandoned Treasures by Dario Erkelens
©Nicole Marnati.
Swiss designer Dario Erkelens presents sculptural furniture made of abandoned material, inviting us to rethink trash as a ‘treasure’ material. With a long-time preference for recycling and repurposing materials, he found an irresistible need to collect these ‘abandoned treasures’ and give them a new purpose as well as “raise awareness about our current throw-away society.”
Completing the Grid by Léo Nunes Almeida
©Nicole Marnati.
With the Completing the Grid performative installation, Léo Nunes Almeida invites exploring how a consistent knitting practice can unlock a flow state and a sense of personal fulfilment. Now, he would like to guide others to experience “the same transformative state and is inviting individuals and groups alike to explore the potential of knitting to unlock flow.”
LLL_01 lamp by Lucien Nicou
©Femke Reijerman.
French designer Lucien Nicou unveils LLL_01, a modular lamp system that allows users to play with a projected beam of light shining through various lenses. Users can play with the projected beam, diffract or focus it according to their needs and desires. The set demonstrates a love for precision and clean industrial aesthetics.
Rubber, a design material by Eline van Dijkman
©Ronald Smits.
Dutch designer Eline van Dijkman introduces a series of outdoor furniture showing recycled rubber waste’s unique properties and potential. Clean lines, sharp angles and rough, unpolished finishes portray an industrial aesthetic while highlighting the visual imperfections of the recycled material. The designer teamed up with DRI Rubber, a leader in processing and mechanically recycling rubber worldwide.
A Superyacht Encounter by Shai Ben-Ami and Charles Weinberg
©Ronald Smits.
“If the superyacht is the epitome of contemporary aspirational values, where are we heading?” Shai Ben-Ami, cofounder of the Weinberg & Ben-Ami studio, presents an installation and film confronting the normalisation of superyachts as symbols of success and prestige. The installation and film expose the bitter reality concealed behind the glossy façade — from the glaring wealth disparity and elitism that permeate yacht shows to the mistreatment of crew members, the severe environmental impact, and more.
Slavic Phantasmagoria by Sonia Górecka
©Femke Reijerman.
Warsaw and Rotterdam-based designer Sonia Górecka presents a contemporary interpretation of Slavic folklore and symbols, inviting visitors to reflect on the region’s instability from a different perspective. The installation features a tapestry embroidered with traditional motifs and totemic engraved brick compositions. Together with Slavic choir music, this invites the audience to explore the intricate interplay between tradition and modernity and the transformative power of reinterpreting cultural symbols within a globalised world.
