Dutch Design Week marks a quarter century with royalty and radical thinking

Dutch Design Week (DDW) 2025 opened with a sense of ceremony and momentum. Marking its 25th anniversary and launched by Queen Máxima, this year’s edition felt like both a celebration and a commitment. Eindhoven once again transformed into a living laboratory for ideas, with more than 2,500 designers activating 120 locations across the city and drawing an enormous, curious public. The overarching theme, Past. Present. Possible., encouraged a layered reading of the festival. It gestured towards reflection, yet remained firmly forward-looking.

As Creative Head Miriam van der Lubbe noted, ‘DDW25 marked a milestone 25th anniversary edition, opened spectacularly by Queen Máxima. It was a powerful week, enriched by new programme elements such as the Industrial Design Hub, the 100 Signature & Collective designers at the Caai, and a vibrant Ketelhuisplein. Once again, many participants surprised us with exceptional work – from Pauline van Dongen, Crafts Council at the Fabriek and Hydro at Kazerne to our loyal partners including Design Academy Eindhoven, Fashion Tech Farm and Secrid – showcasing emerging talent and established names alike and underscoring the immense potential and impact of design.’ It was a sentiment that echoed across the city.

New programme structures and new energies

One of the most meaningful shifts this year came through the introduction of the HUBs. These thematic clusters brought designers together around shared urgencies, from new materials to questions of digital culture and urban futures. The approach created a more intentional narrative throughout the festival. Rather than offering polished, showroom-ready work, the HUBs emphasised experimentation and enquiry. Visitors were invited into design processes, with prototypes, tests and speculative models forming much of the content. This gave the week a sharper critical edge while maintaining a sense of openness.

De Caai, meanwhile, was transformed into a destination for collectible, contemporary furniture and object design. Curated by Liv Vaisberg, it hosted the Signature and Collective Objects presentation and introduced a distinct atmosphere within DDW: one that explored the expressive potential of furniture as much as its utility. The industrial architecture of the site contributed to the effect, positioning the works within a raw, material-driven context that complemented the themes of the exhibition.

Over at Ketelhuisplein, the experience shifted again. The vast outdoor square became a lively meeting point, animated throughout the week by installations, workshops and public interventions. It captured the civic spirit of DDW and offered a more spontaneous counterbalance to the structured exhibitions elsewhere. Studio Pauline van Dongen’s Umbra Pavilion was a highlight here, presenting a solar-textile canopy that merged technology, public space and environmental awareness in a single, elegant gesture.

Breaking new ground

The dialogue between generations has long been one of Dutch Design Week’s strengths, and the 2025 edition made this especially clear. The Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show once again served as a gravitational centre, revealing how emerging designers are approaching materiality, sustainability, social justice and speculative futures with equal acuity. The work felt immediate and ambitious, reflecting a generation attuned to complexity.

Established studios and institutions offered a different kind of depth. Their projects probed production, craft, industrial process and long-term impact. Exhibitions from Crafts Council at the Fabriek, Hydro at Kazerne and partners such as Fashion Tech Farm and Secrid demonstrated how experience and industry knowledge can be leveraged to produce work that is both rigorous and imaginative. What emerged was not a hierarchy but a conversation, with younger and more seasoned designers pushing one another’s thinking.

Design as Process

What distinguished the 25th edition most clearly was its resistance to becoming purely commercial. DDW remains unashamedly designer-led. Many of the most memorable works across the city were those still unfolding: investigations, not endpoints. This approach reinforced the idea that design is a method for thinking as much as it is a means of making. It also placed emphasis on transparency, collaboration and curiosity, qualities that felt entirely fitting for an anniversary year.

Walking through Eindhoven during DDW25, the sense of momentum was palpable. The new programme elements, the thoughtful curatorial structure and the renewed use of industrial sites suggested a festival entering a confident new phase. If this edition is any indication, Dutch Design Week will continue to champion design that is ambitious, critical and deeply engaged with the world it seeks to shape. The 25th year did not simply mark a milestone. It underlined that design thrives when it is allowed to remain unfinished, responsive and open to what might come next.

© Architonic