Throwback: Dutch Design Week 2015

It's that time of the year again: the Dutch Design Week is around the corner! From 22 to 30 October Eindhoven will be buzzing with design lovers from near and far away. This time I'll help the DDW crew for one day, so I'm very excited!

Before I start to hype this year's programme, I want to take a quick look at the last edition of the DDW. I noticed that I still have some pictures from last year, and it would a pity not to share them. So here's some of my favourites from then:

1. Every year the Dutch interior magazine Eigen Huis & Interieur arranges an exhibition which reveals their choices for the top 25 Dutch designers. Each room of the exhibition is dedicated for a certain designer(s); here you see a picture of Studio Formafantasma's room from last year. I wonder what their favourites are this time...

2. The Dutch designer's Piet Hein Eek's workshop has always been one of my favourite spots during the DDW, and this year will be no exception! The formal industrial complex is a mix of laboratory, workshop, showroom, shop and restaurant, offering a place for guests, workers of Piet Hein Eek and young design talents. Piet Hein Eek is known for his furniture made of scrap wood and metal, and one of the best things in his workshop is the stunnig scent of wood! Of course, this unique setting also offers an opportuity to see how his designs are actually made.

Last year they exhibited this space that has the typical vibes à la Piet Hein Eek; a mix of old and new with a bohemian twist. Notice the tables made from scrap wood!

3.  A year ago I fell in love with the Tannic acid research project of Steven Banken whose studio is located on the factory side of Piet Hein Eek. The basis of this research was a rusty nail surrounded by blue stains in oak. Banken discovered that both oak and steel turn into dark blue colour through a natural reaction: oak, that contains high concentrations of tannic acid, becomes dark blue when exposed to steel; and steel changes its colour into blue when red iron oxide and tannic acid react chemically. To accelerate this process, Banken then applied the elements that cause this reaction in liquid form on the other material. The results were stunning!

The theme of the DDW 2016 is 'the making of' which sets the making process in the centre and honours the makers. It's a good idea to bring makers and their work close to people who are largely alienated from the whole work process. Can't wait to see what they have to exhibit this year!

Photos by me.

'Home is where you park it': Minitopia in 's-Hertogenbosch

Since July this year a small piece of the Dutch city 's-Hertogenbosch has been transformed into an architectural playground. By the initiation of REZONE, an organization that creates projects in the field of architecture, art, city planning and new media, a terrein of 6000 square meters will be used for experimenting with innovative houses for one year long. In other words, the purpose of this project is not to make common building from brickstones, but ones that make you think 'wow, so it's possible to live that way too!'. This project is fittingly named as Minitopia - the terrein represents an architectural utopia in a minimal size.

According to the first pamphlet of Minitopia the project consists of 'a number of living experiments' with which 'Rezone will research whether a building can be "hacked" and in that way opened to a user in a sustainable way." Currently the terrein has three houses: the Tiny House, WikiHouse and Inflatable. The number of houses will increase as the project moves on.

The Tiny House by Mill Home represents the Tiny House Movement that originates from America but is gaining steadily a foothold in the Netherlands as well. The high living expenses and the long waiting lists for homes are some of the reasons that the Dutch are reconsidering alternative ways of living. Tiny houses (usually between 10 to 50 m²) have been represented as one option since they are affordable and fast to build. Because of the modular building technique, meaning that the building is built from ready-made parts (=modules), the house can be practically set up in one day. This enables further that the house can be placed anywhere (of course, the regulations don't allow that yet but hey, we talk about an utopian scenario), or even set on wheels! For someone who needs to travel for work regularly or doesn't want to be tied down by their home, a tiny house is an ideal option because of its simplicity and flexibility. Ikea's annual rapport on living trends confirms that the role of home as a stable, permanent place, is changing as the boundary between home and work is blurring.

Others choose for the tiny house because of its sustainability. Living small means less need for electricity, heating and cooling, and less materials for building. In Minitopia the Tiny House is equipped with sun panels so its self-sustainability is increased. Not to forget, living small means living with less (a topic of which I have written earlier): the pamphlet of Minitopia then rises the question whether it's necessary to live with much stuff.

The second building of Minitopia is the WikiHouse, a research project of REZONE on a new building system that is sustainable, flexible and brings its production closer to its inhabitant. The idea of the WikiHouse is based on an online, open-source construction kit that is available to everyone. You only need to download the building templates, cut out the parts in plywood with a CNC milling machine and finally start hammering away! With this futuristic building technology REZONE aims to recreate the iconic, but never realized, Maison d'Artiste by the Dutch architect Theo van Doesburg in a modern way.

Lastly, the Inflatable is a mobile workspace created by Studio Air Design. Imagine: you don't have enough space for a business meeting and you don't have enough time to arrange other location. So what do you do? Inflate an extra space! After that everyone is gone you just empty the 'extra room' and set is aside. Handy!

The ecosystem of the Minitopia terrein has been further researched to see whether it's suitable for self-sustainability. Until now the results have been that the terrein has a variety of trees and plants  that are largely edible.

Projects like Minitopia show that there are more options available for living spaces than what we are accustomated to think. The tiny house community is growing steadily in the Netherlands, but the idea of downloading a house in the WikiHouse kind of way needs still some adjustments before getting big. I am very excited to see what kind of houses will appear to the terrein next! The progress of Minitopia can be followed on REZONE's blog.

Photos: 1 by me | 2 Droomstad Den Bosch | 3 Mill Home | 4 NRC | 5&6 REZONE | 7 Boschveld ambachtcentrum

Sources: 

Rezone (website & 1st pamphlet)

Sanny Visser, 'Een heel huis op 15 vierkante meter' via NRC

Suzanne Labarre, 'WikiHouse, An Online Building Kit, Shows How To Make A House in 24 Hours' via Co.Design

Hats that Matisse would wear

If  Matisse was still alive, I am pretty sure he would wear the hats designed by Laura Apsit Livens in

London. The delicious colours of the hats and the paper cut-out-like decorations makes them perfect to anyone who lives in his spirit. Now I just need to learn how to wear hats...

Via Miss Moss

Scandinavian Living magazine - My impression

Yesterday I heard the news that finally a Scandinavian lifestyle magazine has been brought to the Netherlands with a focus on design, interior and architecture - called as Scandinavian Living. I found this really exciting since I had already noticed a long time ago that the Dutch are incredibly fascinated by Scandinavia.

Unfortunately I wasn't very impressed by the magazine. Despite the title 'Scandinavian Living' the first number was almost completely dedicated to Danish living: all shown buildings and homes were from Denmark and every introduced designers were Danish as well. On the other hand this is little surprising since the Scandinavian Living is made in collaboration with the Danish magazine Bo Bedre. Although it is interesting to read about the Scandinavian living from the Danish point of view, I think that the current content does not correspond with the title of the magazine. In other words, Scandinavian Living misses its original purpose - to show how Scandinavians live.

I really hope that in the future this magazine will be more versatile and will also tell more about Swedish and Norwegian design news & homes (and deep inside I hope Finland and Iceland to be included as well, although they're not officially part of Scandinavia - but these two countries still have a close historical and cultural ties with Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Because there's a lot happening too! We'll see which direction this magazine will take from now on.

Photo from April and May

An ideal getaway accommodation: The Hemmelig Rom

A tiny cabin with a ton of books in the middle of the forest - what more could you ask for?

The minimalistic Hemmelig Rom (in Norwegian "secret room") was created by Studio PADRON in upstate New York.


Source: Dezeen magazine 

When one fork, knife and spoon is enough - the minimalistic living movement

It's been forever since the last blog post, but many things have happened since then: I finished my Master's thesis (more about that later), graduated from the university and am currently busy with a publication. Last months have flown by so fast that I haven't even realized that the last time I wrote here was on March (!). So it's time for a new post to make it up to you.

Last time I shared my inspiration of Japanese minimalism. I would like to turn back to this topic, but this time I aim to discuss about it more in depth: instead of talking about minimal design of objects, we now talk about minimal living style - in other words, what does it mean to live with a minimal amount of stuff.

Commonly it is thought that objects make home - you know, things like the nice vase that you've found from a thrift store or that old chair you've received from your (grand)parents. However, there are also people who prefer to live with as little as possible. The constant stream of new, fashionable and trendy stuff have exhausted some, making them to turn into a total opposite direction; instead of buying objects, they are giving up on everything unnecessary. The act of giving up on stuff has made them think about our relation to objects and the question what we really need in our everyday lives.

The minimalistic living movement has occured in several parts of the world (especially after the hype caused by KonMari), but especially Japan has been mentioned as a place of 'hardcore minimalists'. Their reasons for minimalistic lifestyle vary from the tiredness of keeping up with trends to spare aesthetics of Zen Buddhism. The lack of stuff has also its more practical sides: with fewer possessions there all less objects to fall when the country is shaken by earthquakes (thirty to fifty percent of earthquake injuries are actually caused by falling objects!).

The thoughts of these minimalists are fascinating. For example Naoki Numahata, a freelance writer, ponders that 'in the west, making a space complete means placing something there...but with tea ceremonies, or Zen, things are left incomplete on purpose to let the person's imagination make that space complete.' Numahata's idea of minimal living style has a touch of Japanese concept known as ma (間), which literally translates to 'space between' but is also known as negative space, void or gap. Ma exists in all facets of life: it is the pause between words or a tea break in a busy day. One purpose of ma is to give space for thoughts and enable men to complete what is missing in their minds. With that said, ma is by no means emptiness but more like temporary or transitory experience. In the Japanese living spaces ma manifests itself in the act of storing futons away by the day and replacing them by small tables. The space changes continuously, giving a transitory meaning to the objects in it.

A more 'western look' at the subject matter can be found from Petri Luukkanen's documentary My Stuff (2013). Luukkanen had filled up his life with objects that he thought would bring him happiness, but instead he felt empty inside. This prompted him to store all of his belongings into a storage space of ten square meters. In the winter, stark naked in his appartment, he started his one-year human experiment: for 365 days he wouldn't buy anything, but was allowed to retrieve one item back per day from the storage. Little by little he learned which belongings mattered the most, and that life was not all about collecting stuff.

After viewing these clutter-free homes I wonder if I should take some radical steps to create more ma vibes to my home. Or maybe I should start by following this list.


Sources:

'Reuters, 'Less is more as Japanese minimalist movement grows'

The Japan Times, 'In space-tight Japan, how to live like a minimalist'

Wawaza, 'When Less is More: Concept of Japanese "Ma"'

Mas Context, 'The Potential of Nothing'

My Stuff - The Movie (official website)

Me Naiset, 'Tavarataivas-dokumentin ohjaaja luopui omaisuudestaan ja tuli onnellisemmaksi'

Helsingin Sanomat, 'Ihmiskoe kesti vuoden'

Photos from Reuters and Filmstarts

Inspiration: Japanese minimalism

Lately I've been inspired by Japanese minimalism. Here's some of my current favourites, starting from above left:

1. Paper Honey pop chair designed by Tokujin Yoshioka in 2006
2. Muji pre-fabricated huts launched at Tokyo Design Week in November 2015
3.Minimalistic clothes of the label Black Crane, designed by Alexander Yamaguchi and Momoko Suzuki (their home is really inspirational as well, just take a look!)
4. KonMari book by organizing consultant Marie Kondo who promises to make tidying up life-changing. In Finland people are crazy about this book, and the hype has also made me wonder about my cluttered closets (ahem).
5. Tornado installation made from two million straws (!), also by Tokujin Yoshioka, 2015.

Photos: Artnet, Archdaily, Black Crane, Adlibris, Dezeen.


PS. I've noticed that in the New Orleans Museum of Art will be an exhibition 'The Essence of Things - Design and the Art of Reduction' this summer. The picture has very Japanese vibes, no?