Dutch Design Week returns to Eindhoven from 17 to 25 October, bringing together established names and emerging talents for a city-wide programme of exhibitions, installations and experimental projects. This year’s theme, “raw”, focuses on unpolished, authentic design and encourages creators to question conventional approaches to materials, technology and sustainability.
One of the festival’s key attractions is the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show, which offers a glimpse of the next generation of designers. The school has produced internationally recognised figures including Sabine Marcelis, Formafantasma and Hella Jongerius, making the annual exhibition a major opportunity to discover emerging talent.
Energy and sustainability feature prominently in several projects. Dutch designer Teresa van Dongen presents Between Lights, a transparent window decal that functions as a solar-powered night light, continuing her exploration of unconventional approaches to clean energy. Meanwhile, design duo Isabel + Helen will transform Eindhoven’s Stadhuisplein with Field, an installation of towering wind turbines that visitors can move and turn towards the wind, making otherwise invisible energy flows tangible.
Material reuse is another central theme. The group exhibition 01 Alu Edition brings together 14 designers who have transformed aluminium offcuts from street-lighting poles and extrusion profiles into new products. The project highlights how industrial waste can become a resource for fresh design ideas.
Dutch designer Gijs Schalkx takes a more provocative approach to sustainability with On the Way to a Future. His projects include a car powered by waste plastic and a motorbike running on swamp gas, using unconventional technologies to challenge dependence on fossil fuels.
The relationship between technology and privacy is explored in Berlin-based designer Simon Weckert’s Digital Camouflage. The project features a shirt designed to disrupt facial-recognition systems used by surveillance cameras, raising questions about how people can protect themselves as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life. It will be shown alongside work by 14 other international designers.
Eindhoven collective Show Not Show returns with Table of Power, an exhibition that recreates a corporate boardroom at the de Kruisruimte studio complex. The third edition features work by regular participants Frank Penders and Lucas Zito, alongside guest designers Aleksandra Adamchyk, Kilian Vos and Pablo Octavio.
Furniture takes centre stage in two further exhibitions. Teun Zwets, whose previous Dutch Design Week presentations featured distinctive furniture made from glossy, splintered wood, will unveil 50 new chair designs. The collection marks a departure from his familiar style, with each piece exploring materials and production methods he has not used before.
Forward Furniture, curated by Design Biennale Rotterdam co-founder Liv Vaisberg, will bring together almost 100 established and emerging designers working in and around collectible design. Each participant will present three pieces, while a carpet-based exhibition layout introduces a softer contrast to the show’s former industrial setting.
The festival’s programme also includes Local Linoleum, an exhibition by Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma examining the origins of everyday materials. Her work seeks to make complex production chains more visible, highlighting how industrialisation and globalisation have distanced consumers from the processes behind the objects they use.
Together, the ten projects reflect the breadth of Dutch Design Week, from experimental furniture and material reuse to renewable energy and digital privacy. Spread across venues throughout Eindhoven, the festival runs until 25 October 2026, offering visitors an opportunity to explore how designers are responding to environmental, technological and social challenges.
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