Past meets possible at Dutch Design Week 2025

This month, Dutch Design Week celebrates a quarter century of imagination and collaboration in Eindhoven. Co-founder Miriam van der Lubbe reflects on how a small local initiative became a global stage for design’s evolving role in shaping the future.

By Claire Brodka

Dutch Design Week

October 6, 2025 | 12:00 am CUT

Dutch Design Week’s first 25 years have shown that imagination can be infrastructure. The next 25 will show how the possible becomes the plan. Photo: © Nick Bookelaar

Eindhoven has never been afraid of transformation. Once an industrial powerhouse humming with Philips factories, the small city in the south Netherlands has reinvented itself as a beacon for ideas in motion – the kind that take shape, question themselves and reshape the world in the process. Every October, Dutch Design Week (DDW) turns the town into a living lab, and this year marks a particularly luminous milestone: its 25th edition. From 18 to 26 October 2025, more than 2,500 designers will fill 120 venues with a single shared brief: to explore the 'Past. Present. Possible.'

The scale alone is impressive, with 350,000 visitors expected and a line-up that ranges from emerging graduates to international names such as HEMA, Hydro and Vattenfall. Yet what truly defines DDW is its energy. It has always blurred the boundaries between exhibition and experiment, turning Eindhoven from a backdrop into a stage where ideas are constantly tested and reimagined. Here, concepts become prototypes and prototypes become provocations.

At Dutch Design Week, concepts become prototypes and prototypes become provocations

As DDW 2025 celebrates its silver anniversary, the event feels anything but nostalgic. Instead, it doubles down on curiosity – on what happens when you mix generations, disciplines and ambitions across a city and call it collaboration. Between 'Grand Projects’ towering outdoor installations, 'Forward Furniture'’s exploration of collectible design and the next generation’s debut in 'Class of 25', among other highlights, this edition promises to be both retrospective and refreshingly restless.

To understand how the annual gathering of minds has evolved into one of the world’s most influential design events, Architonic sat down with Miriam van der Lubbe, DDW’s co-founder and curator of this year’s central exhibition 'Bridging Minds' at the Van Abbemuseum. Over coffee, she spoke about reflection, responsibility and the kind of courage design still needs to cultivate.

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Miriam van der Lubbe. Photo: © Lisa Klappe

Claire Brodka: 'Past. Present. Possible' feels like an open-ended invitation. How does this anniversary theme shape the week?

Miriam van der Lubbe: It’s our 25th edition, so naturally there’s a moment of reflection. Designers are wired to look forward; we rarely stop to see how far we’ve come. This year is about recognising that collective effort, seeing what design has already achieved for society and realising how much more potential there still is. It’s a celebration, but also a call to action.

How are you marking the anniversary?

We’ll start with a special opening that will be memorable, although I can’t reveal too much yet. We’ve also built a pavilion on Ketelhuisplein dedicated to everyone who has helped make DDW what it is: designers, partners, volunteers and the people who keep Eindhoven running every day. It’s a way to acknowledge the ecosystem behind the creativity.

Visitors finding their way around and Miriam van der Lubbe at DDW 24's official opening. Photos: © Max Kneefel & Lotte Dale

One of the headline shows is 'Bridging Minds' at the Van Abbemuseum. What can visitors expect?

The exhibition focuses on the connecting power of design. We’ve gathered around a hundred works by designers such as Hella Jongerius, Formafantasma, Klarenbeek & Dros and Maarten Baas. These projects don’t just comment on the world, they act within it. The exhibition is arranged around ten themes, from empowerment to care and from innovation to our relationship with nature. Each piece shows how design can contribute to progress, sometimes through modest or even poetic steps.

Ketelhuisplein once again takes literal centre stage at DDW 25 (top). Vattenfall will also join the programme once again (bottom). Photos: © Max Kneefel & Cleo Goossens

You’ve spoken before about design deserving a place 'at the decision table'. What does that look like in practice?

It means that design thinking should be a structural part of decision-making in every sector, from government to business. In the Netherlands, ministries have pledged to establish design departments within ten years, which is a great start. The next step is proving design’s impact in measurable ways. We need strong examples that demonstrate how creativity changes outcomes and improves lives.

Eindhoven itself is evolving quickly. How does the city protect its creative pulse as it grows?

That’s one of the key challenges. Eindhoven is part of the Brainport region, which will add about 70,000 homes in the next decade. Expansion brings pressure on space and affordability. During DDW we’ll launch Design Development Eindhoven, an initiative to ensure that designers can continue living and working here rather than being pushed out by the tech boom. The city understands that creativity adds quality of life; it’s not decorative, it’s essential.

Designers Kiki & Joost will open their studio (top) on the outskirts of Eindhoven and spaces like cultural centre Sectie-C (bottom) will activate countless other sites throughout the city. Photos: © Anwyn Howarth & Almicheal Fraay

DDW has always mixed established names with newcomers. How important is that cross-generational dialogue?

It’s vital. Design has changed dramatically in 25 years, and with that diversity we risk losing clarity about what design really is. I sometimes joke that we must be careful not to become 'Dutch Everything Week'. We need to preserve the profession’s core skills while staying open to new disciplines. Collaboration between generations is essential; younger designers bring urgency and experimentation, while older ones bring context and continuity.

Those of us who have been around longer have a duty to open doors, share networks and give others a platform

You also seem deeply committed to mentoring younger designers.

I remember starting out when there was generous funding and plenty of room to explore. Today, opportunities are thinner, and young designers face information overload and economic uncertainty. Those of us who have been around longer have a duty to open doors, share networks and give others a platform. If someone approaches three weeks before the festival with a strong idea, I’d rather say yes and find a way to make it work. That spontaneity keeps DDW alive.

'Class of 2025' returns as a standout exhibition (top), with materials and prototypes that inspire discussions of the future. Photos: © Max Kneefel

Looking back, what stands out as the most transformative shift over the last quarter century?

Two things come to mind. The first is the expansion of design’s role, from crafting objects to shaping systems, policies and public life. The second is the need to make the impact of design visible. Ideas have to be embodied. If we want others to join us in creating change, they need to be able to see and touch it.

Discussion is valuable, but prototypes, installations and physical experiences are what move people. The Netherlands has plenty of process and planning, but sometimes lacks courage. We need more bold gestures that show creativity in action, not only on paper. Bridging Minds aims to do just that: to demonstrate the next small but crucial steps in connecting design with real life.

What do you hope visitors take away from this year’s edition?

I hope they leave with a sense that possibility belongs to everyone. Whether you’re a policymaker, a student or simply curious, DDW is an open invitation to imagine the future together. If it works, people will leave Eindhoven thinking differently about how the world could be, because they’ve seen it and experienced it first-hand.