Dutch Design Week 25th edition: Past. Present. Possible.
Now in its 25th edition, the festival comes back with even more ambition, and we are ready to see what new ideas and provocations it has in store for this year’s edition.
As autumn approaches, the design community turns its attention to Eindhoven, where the Dutch Design Week will celebrate its remarkable 25th edition. Running from October 18 to 26, the international festival marks a significant milestone for what has become the design epicentre of Northern Europe.
This silver anniversary carries a special significance under the theme of “Past. Present. Possible.” “Dutch Design Week isn’t your typical design exhibition; it’s a vivid lab for experimentation,” says Miriam van der Lubbe, Creative Head of DDW. “It’s where audiences, professionals, businesses, and students all come together to test ideas, question assumptions, and imagine new futures.” Driven by a passionate community of designers who built their own stage from the ground up, the festival remains true to its original spirit, where design plays an active role in shaping tomorrow.
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A standout feature of DDW is its transformation of Eindhoven into an open-air gallery through 11 large scale public installations. Selected through an open call process, they are spread across the city and freely accessible to everyone. Notable installations we will see this year include Factory 5.0 by Aditya Mandlik, where thousands of mealworms will eat polystyrene, reimagining architecture as impermanent and meant to decay, raising questions about circularity and ecology. Similarly, the Umbra Pavilion by Pauline van Dongen will feature Heliotex, a solar textile that generates energy while offering shade, presenting a world where renewable energy production is seamlessly integrated into daily life.
Other installations will present social themes as well, like the Waiting Room by Nanne Brouwer, which will be an alternative design for emergency accommodation, addressing how to treat vulnerable groups with dignity and respect. The Econario by Thijs Biersteker will instead be a data-driven installation which will show how political decisions made today will affect tomorrow’s living environment, in a tangible and comprehensible way.
During this celebration, the organisation will also face a complex transition, as its Managing Director, Martijn Paulen, has announced his departure for 2026, after more than 12 years of leadership. The event has exploded under his guidance, growing into a leading non-profit organisation shaping the future of design. We remain curious to see who will come next to take “the best job in the Netherlands”, as Paulen has called it.
As the festival declares, “experiment is the engine of progress”, inviting us as visitors to experience the importance of design in our social imagination and our future scenarios. While other fairs remain close to their commercial and historical nature, Dutch Design Week has never failed to look at the future and intrigue its audience, and we remain extremely curious to see what questions, inspirations, and connections it will surprise us with this year.
