Dutch Design Week (DDW) 2024, hosted in Eindhoven from October 19th to 27th, was a dynamic celebration of design that was as playful and whimsical as it was sustainable and socially conscious. As Europe's largest stage for emerging talent, DDW distinguishes itself from commercial events by showcasing innovative and experimental projects.
With over 2,600 designers presenting their works in 120 venues, this year’s theme, "Real/Unreal" opened a dialogue between reality and fantasy. While the week also explored themes such as AI, digital futures, and social impacts, our focus is on the fascinating new materials and eco-innovations that caught our attention.
Explore the highlights projects involving Mycelium, Wool, Natural Fibers, and more, all highlighting DDW’s crucial role in driving the future of design.
FUNGI WONDERS
Fungi are really everywhere — mushrooms have emerged as an unavoidable trend in design. Mycelium captivates designers' imaginations with its moldability and eco-friendly attributes, like insulation and pollutant detoxification. Its rapid, low-resource growth makes it an ideal material for innovation across design disciplines.
Manuel Arias’s MYCO ROOM
"Myco Room" by designer Manuel Arias, explores mycelium as a sustainable leather-like alternative dyed with vegetable carbon black. This project reflects mycelium's potential in fashion, showcasing interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.
Andrea Brittnek’s “Tactile Whiteness”
Andrea Brittnek’s "Tactile Whiteness" explores the sensory dynamics of mycelium, using it alongside natural materials to create multisensory art. Her projects, MAP(Mycelium Advanced Phrases) and FYP (Fungi Yielded Papers), craft mycelium forms and edible paper or packaging, integrating nature with urban design and revealing hidden structures under UV light.
MNEXT’s TUFUCOL
The TUFUCOL project, "TUrn FUnghi potentials into a COLorful future" is a collaboration between MNEXT and Looop focused on sustainable color production through yeast fermentation. This innovative initiative aims to replace harmful synthetic dyes with eco-friendly, fungi-based pigments, highlighting optimal production methods and signaling a move towards environmentally restorative practices within the dye industry.
WOOL - THE OLD AND THE NEW
In the Netherlands, where sheep graze on vast fields, wool is becoming more than just a byproduct. This rather abundant natural fiber is capturing designer´s imaginations.
Christien Meindertsma’s 3D Wool Printing
Christien Meindertsma's robot, known as Flocks Wobot, developed with TFT, uses 3D-printing technology to transform raw wool into solid, three-dimensional forms without needing extra materials or water.
This cutting-edge robot repurposes wool waste into practical applications such as furniture, acoustic panels, and insulation. Through this innovation, previously discarded wool finds new life in sustainable design.
In a creative highlight, the Flocks Wobot crafted a unique trophy for the Dutch Design Awards from discarded European wool, bringing Christien's design journey full circle since her Young Designer win in 2008.
DieKees by MinneWorks
DieKees by MinneWorks reinvents plant cultivation by swapping out plastic pots for biodegradable ones made from repurposed Dutch wool, drastically cutting down the Netherlands' reliance on over 8.5 million discarded plastic pots annually.
These innovative wool pots enhance plant growth with natural insulation, water retention, and insect repellence, offering an eco-friendly game-changer for gardeners and large-scale growers alike.
NOVER by Eva Xiste
Eva Xiste’s NOVER project creatively transforms waste from wool, wood chips, and breadcrumbs into a robust biomaterial, fashioning artistic and functional pieces like stools and vessels.
By using residual heat from a local bakery’s oven, the initiative exemplifies circular economy principles, turning by-products into new sustainable materials for the community.
Other Innovation Highlights
Here are more projects that caught our eye at Dutch Design Week this year, highlighting standout packaging innovations and other captivating biodesigns.
As designers revisit traditional methods and natural fibers like flax and hemp, they spark debate: Is this a nostalgic echo of the past or a thoughtful push toward a cleaner future?
Bubbles with Benefits
Satu Paavonsalo's "Bubbles with Benefits" project reimagines packaging by turning cellulose into biodegradable alternatives to traditional plastics, offering a glimpse into the future of eco-friendly yet not boring branding.
Nawa’s 3D Date Pits
The Omani design collective Nawa has ingeniously converted waste date seeds into "RePit" — a sustainable 3D printing filament that debuted at Dutch Design Week, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional thermoplastics.
By combining crushed date seeds with natural Omani clay and palm fibers, this innovative material highlights the underutilised potential of agricultural by-products for sustainable manufacturing processes.
Innovative textile coating made from biobased nanoparticles
Doctoral researcher Sahar Babaeipour from Chemarts unveiled an innovative textile coating made from biobased nanoparticles, enhancing water repellency and breathability using natural fatty acids and lignin.
Fashion pieces by student Riikka Kiili, such as trousers crafted from wood cellulose and recycled cotton, showcase this sustainable, biodegradable coating's potential in eco-friendly fashion.
Origami packaging
Led by Laureen Mahler, the Cellugami project brings a fresh perspective to packaging by fusing aesthetics with sustainability, using origami techniques and nettle fibers to create biodegradable, reusable designs.
This unique fusion of material and visual innovation not only challenges conventional packaging but invites curiosity about the artistic possibilities in everyday items.
Grassland Crafted by Studio Akash
Grassland Crafted by Studio Akash transforms ordinary grass into innovative design materials, resulting in eco-friendly textiles and natural dyes.
By weaving fully matured grass and extracting dyes, the project produces unique, sustainable textiles and materials that emphasise both structural integrity and vibrant aesthetics.
Conclusion
Dutch Design Week 2024 dazzled with innovative materials and material solutions, each a marvel of genuine creativity. But as the week closed, the real question remains: what now?
This begs the question of bridging these concepts from niche showcases to industry standards. Can these materials move beyond the experimental and shape mainstream design? And if that’s a desirable future, what are the scalable to fast-track the adoption?
