The new intimacy was this year’s Dutch Design Week theme. How can we experience material tactility in today’s socially distanced world? And how can design and colour help us to feel more together - even when we are physically apart? We have highlighted some of our favourite designers below, with a focus on colour for our future.
Fabulous Fungi is the project created by Llse Kremer a fashion/textile designer and bio-designer who recently graduated from Willem de Kooning Academy. Llse’s project looks at the water pollution caused by harmful textile dyes and focuses on how bio-design can reduce the toxins created by this process through the use of fungi.
Ignacio Subias Albert’s graduate show from the Design Academy Eindhoven titled 'When Green is All There is to Be', explores the world’s fascination with ‘green’ and questions what the actual significance of the colour, in order to offer a new perception.
Agne Kucerenkaite created pigments produced from secondary raw materials. Agne worked with ECOLINIUM a Lithuanian manufacturer of eco-friendly linen carpets to colour their collection with industrial waste. She envisions waste as a raw material and an opportunity, not a burden.
Inner landscape is part of a series of works from Martina Dal Brollo a 2020 graduate from the Frank Mohr Institute, who uses plastic waste as a raw material. Martina took 100 people on a 5-day trash-picking expedition, the plastic collected became the raw material used to interpret the journey’s experience. The installation reveals an unexpected spectrum of colours through the internal tension of the plastic.
Inside the Ikea Virtual Greenhouse,Studio Blond & Bieberuse nature as their muse to print on textiles with microalgae. Founders Essi and Rasa demonstrate their exploration of screen printing with crafted microalgae, showcasing a biodynamic colour palette.
Studio-capslock has created CHROME N°1, the clock shows time naturally instead of arrows pointing to numbers which they say drives up your anxiety. This is created by collecting atmospheric colours during the day, then by printing on the glass it is possible to let colours have an interference with each other, as nature would do.
Scope is a lamp created by Charlotte Bombel a recent graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven that creates different light scenes by illuminating a multi-coloured surface. Charlotte explored ways to reproduce the feel of natural light for our interiors.
For A Pop Of Colour Fatboy collaborates with Dutch designer Carole Baijings. The colour impression of the bean bag changes, as the beanbag’s colours are seen from a different angle each time.
Each year Ikea produces a customer based report on consumer lifestyle and mood. This year the Life At Home Report 2020 explores today’s new found close relationship with our homes, and highlights key shifts and new needs at home - in response to the pandemic and the challenges of this transformational year.
“All across the world, we’ve been confined within our four walls, leading many of us to come to a realisation: we want something different from our lives at home. With new priorities emerging everywhere and all at once, the way we will live in the future now looks dramatically different.” - Ikea Life at Home
A key take-out from the report is the urgent need to integrate greenery and nature into our homes and our lifestyles - whether we live in rural or urban environments. As part of DDW IKEA launched their Virtual Green House; a series of masterclasses, live talks and interactive experiences. These are designed to help cultivate a more sustainable and balanced life at home so that we can all thrive, whatever the future holds.
