Krijt-Je-Rijk at Dutch Design Week 2025 – Courtesy of DDW.
Design. Until October 26, Dutch Design Week 2025 transforms Eindhoven into a living lab for creativity. Over 2,500 designers across 120 venues explore the theme Past Present Possible, celebrating 25 years of design innovation. “It reflects on its legacy, showcases today’s creative energy, and explores what design can become,” DDW co-founder Miriam van der Lubbe told Archipanic. From thought-provoking pavilions to poetic installations, the festival dares everyone to imagine the future of design.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Dutch Design Week 2025 on Archipanic.
Bridging Minds at Van Abbemuseum
Creative courage meets tomorrow’s radical ideas.
Queen Maxima at the VanAbbe Museum on the inauguration of Dutch Design Week 2025 – © Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
The Van Abbemuseum presents 100 works by leading designers and artists in an exhibition curated by Miriam van der Lubbe. Spread across ten themed rooms, it explores inclusion, empowerment, raw materials, and freedom. One space, featuring Jalila Essaïdi and Bas Timmer, invites reflection on safety and mutual protection. Another delves into the evolving human–technology relationship, from simple mechanisms to AI, with inspiring contributions from makers like László Moholy-Nagy and Ricky van Broekhoven, blending creativity and innovation throughout [Stratumsedijk 2, 5611 NH, Map].
Next Gen Vision: DAE Graduation Show 2025
Design Academy Eindhoven’s boldest minds step into the unknown.
Who Stole the Sky? graduation project by Ze Qiu, Design Academy Eindhoven – © Nicole Marnati, courtesy of DAE.
Dutch Design Week 2025 welcomes 200 graduates from Design Academy Eindhoven. The DAE Graduation Show 2025 captures design’s power to rethink reality. Ze Qiu exposes the greenwashing of imperialist politics in Inner Mongolia, while Karin Bruno’s dementia-focused radio preserves memory through design. Each project is a small revolution — proof that tomorrow’s designers are not just imagining change, but building it [Microstad Professor Doctor Dorgelolaan 2 5611BA, Map].
Class of 25: The Avenue of Fresh Perspectives
A new generation of global designers steps into the light.
© Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
The Class of 25 group exhibition showcases the most impressive graduation projects from various Dutch and international academies such as IED Istituto Europeo di Design, HKU – University of the Arts Utrecht, and Vilnius Academy of Arts. Each academy showcases one specific project at the front of its presentation. Together, these projects form the Avenue of Fresh Perspectives, capture the current zeitgeist and provide an overview of where the next generation of designers will make a difference [Klokgebouw 50, 5617 AB, Map].
Solar Dreams: The Umbra Pavilion
Turning sunlight into architecture and poetry.
© Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
Studio Pauline van Dongen’s Umbra Pavilion unfurls gracefully in Ketelhuisplein. Crafted from solar textile Heliotex, its canopy shades visitors by day and glows with harvested light by night. As one of the Grand Project installations of Dutch Design Week 2025, it merges sustainability, technology, and beauty — reminding us that design can be both functional and quietly transcendent [Ketelhuisplein 5617 AE, Map].
Krijt-Je-Rijk: The World Largest Crayon
Making the world’s largest chalk drawing.
Courtesy of DDW.
Eindhoven becomes a giant playground thanks to Krijt-Je-Rijk — a participatory project built around a three-metre-tall piece of chalk. Created by De Reuringdienst with Bureau Binnenstad, artist HMX, and Tiago Hesp, it invites everyone to draw, dream, and co-create. From students to passers-by, thousands will help attempt a world record for the largest chalk drawing, turning Eindhoven’s streets into a vibrant, ever-changing canvas of imagination and community spirit [18 Septemberplein 5612 AZ, Map]
Forward Furniture: Visions in Motion
Collector’s furniture takes bold shape.
LOST FORM WORK by Jordan Artisan – Photo via IG, follow @jordan_artisan.
Inside the former Campina dairy factory, Forward Furniture redefines the limits of collectible design. Curated by Liv Vaisberg, the show gathers nearly 100 creators exploring material innovation. Julian Spanbroek explores how principles of highway infrastructure can inform furniture design. Jordan Artisan, the son of an architectural draughtsman, grew up in construction sites; from here, he presents a collection inspired by precast concrete and formwork [De Caai, De Kade, Kanaaldijk-Zuid 1 D 5613LH, Map].
ALL YOU CAN EAT: The Banquet of Excess
A feast of design, desire, and critique.
Courtesy of DDW.
In a world obsessed with endless choice, Spot Collective’s ALL YOU CAN EAT skewers overconsumption and sameness. “Just when you think you’ve served yourself a unique selection,” say the organisers, “you look at the next table and see exactly the same mix.” Playful yet biting, this show turns design into a mirror — revealing how abundance can devour originality [Eindhoven Centraal Station 5612AZ, Map].
In Action: 25 Years of Kiki & Joost
Design’s dynamic duo celebrates creativity, craft, and connection.
Kiki&Joost at Dutch Design Week 2024 – Photo by Anwyn Howarth.
This year marks 25 years of design adventures for Kiki & Joost. Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk celebrate with the In Action exhibition. Expect a vibrant mix of new autonomous works and joyful collabs with fellow artists, partners and friends. From garden-grown tapestries to bold wearables and expressive experiments in clay and paint—this is a tribute to movement, making, and the power of creating together. Come for the beauty, stay for the energy, leave inspired [Gabriël Metsulaan 1, 5613 LC, Map].
Transnatural: The Invisible Matters
When nature, technology, and design rediscover balance.
Photo by Transnatural.
The Invisible Matters exhibition by Transnatural transforms unseen natural forces into tangible art. Designers and scientists collaborate to reveal the pulse both above and below our planet’s surface. By merging ecology with innovation, the showcase explores alternative routes and bridges the poetic and the practical — offering a delicate meditation on how to coexist with nature rather than control it [Spoor K, Fuutlaan 14K 5613AB, Map].
Gaza Travel Agency: A Journey Home
Design as Empathy: Visualising Return, Hope, and Belonging.
Image by Sally Tyson, courtesy of DDW.
Since 1948, over seven million Palestinians have become refugees. The Gaza Travel Agency is an imaginary travel agency that designs the return of Gazan refugees to their ancestral towns. The exhibition invites visitors to step into an imaginary travel agency, where routes, destinations, and emotions of return can be explored. “Rather than debate, the installation creates space to visualise the simple, human act of ‘taking a bus home,’ shifting the narrative from impossibility and despair toward hope, belonging, and peace” [Plug in City, Leidingstraat 17A 5617AJ, Map]
Water Basin Totem: The Power of Reuse
A monumental tower celebrating circular design.
Courtesy of DDW.
Built from 84 recycled plastic basins, Salù Iwadi Studio’s Water Basin Totem turns ordinary objects into a beacon for awareness. The piece, part of DDW’s Grand Projects, reflects on Africa’s water challenges. Due to a lack of recycling infrastructures, the continent is estimated to be the second-largest contributor to plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, accounting for approximately 20% of global plastic waste leakage into the seas. The pavilion’s shimmering surfaces remind visitors that reuse can be powerful — a reflection of both scarcity and creativity rising from necessity [Entrance hall Heuvel Heuvel Galerie 133 5611 DK, Map].
City At Sea Level: A Sunken Reality
Envisioning a future submerged in reflection.
Courtesy of DDW.
Is the horizon fixed, or is it rising? City at Sea Level installation by Studio Cumulus challenges viewers to face the consequences of climate denial. Visitors step under a circular platform to glimpse a half-sunken cityscape. This Grand Project confronts one of the Netherlands’ deepest anxieties: the stark reality of rising sea levels. A thin, poetic line between survival and surrender to water [Markt Eindhoven, Markt 1 5611EB, Map].
SHOW NOT SHOW: Beyond the Object
Tracing the invisible thread between idea and creation.
Photo by SHOW NOT SHOW.
The SHOW NOT SHOW group exhibition returns to Eindhoven after last year’s debut. “This year, we invite you to look beyond the object, to trace the invisible thing called concept.” The showcase features work by Clovis Atelier, Frank Penders, Lucas Zito, Marc Meeuwissen, MOKKO, Studio Luuk van Laarhoven and Yvonne Mak [de Kruisruimte Generaal Bothastraat 7-E 5642NJ, Map].
Designing Society: Design Coalitions
The power of design as a tool for change.
© Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
This year, the Dutch Design Foundation presents the overarching exhibition Designing Society. “This time through our new platform Coalitions: a network where designers, governments, experts and challenge holders use the power of design to tackle societal challenges and shape the future together.” From design solutions for elderly care professionals to a tattoo shop featuring an interactive machine that invites you to bring your own ideas about the future to life [Ketelhuisplein 5617 AE, Map].
Playing with weapons: Soft Power
Challenging our comfort with violence.
© Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
With the provocative Playing with Weapons installation, Hannah van Luttervelt’s cuddly replicas of bombs, rockets, and mortars blur the lines between innocence and destruction. The plush, oversized toys disarm with charm, then unsettle with truth. The installation asks: when does familiarity become numbness? Through softness, the designer reawakens our awareness of war’s chilling normalisation. In a world torn apart by war, how do we perceive safety? [Klokgebouw 50, 5617 AB, Map].
Dutch Design Week 2025 – © Max Kneefel, courtesy of DDW.
