Roosegaarde And Eek Ambassadors DDW 2013

This year, Daan Roosegaarde and Piet Hein Eek are the ambassadors of Dutch Design Week (DDW). This was announced officially by the organisation of the design week. Roosegaarde was asked because of his thought-provoking vision of the future, and Eek on account of his experiencewith entrepreneurial design. Both designers will perform various tasks during and around DDW.

Ambassadors

The DDW ambassadors are literally the representatives of the event. They have been invited to widely propagate the content of the event and make connections between their own networks, the DDW network and all participants. They do so in a personal capacity, but in close cooperation with the DDW organisation. The organisation is pleased with the cooperation of the two figureheads and with considerable interest looks forward to the implementation of their ambassadorship.

Daan Roosegaarde

The world is changing very rapidly: old systems have to be modified or discarded to make room for new ones.  Daan Roosegaarde (1979), trained at the art academy AKI and the Berlage Institute, sees particularly in this area a major role for designers. With his installations at the interface between art and design, he himself has experienced that we are in a transitional period. He says that now he increasingly feels the need to question his colleagues about how they are dealing with the changing world. Therefore, the invitation to become an ambassador of DDW 2013 came at a good time. ‘It’s about the future of the area of expertise and future concepts,’ says Roosegaarde, ‘not just about showing beautiful things. That’s a process in which I can make a difference, and that’s why I really like doing it’.

Piet Hein Eek

If there’s anyone the personification of design city Eindhoven, it’s designer and entrepreneur Piet Hein Eek (1967), who studied at Design Academy Eindhoven himself and received great acclaim all over the world with his hands-on mentality and ground-breaking reuse. His scrapwood cabinets and chairs have meanwhile become icons of recycled furniture and are available all over the world. His factory at Strijp R has since the opening in 2010 been one of the most popular locations during DDW. ‘The great success of the design week has a honey pot effect,’ says Eek. ‘Many companies want a piece of the pie. But creativity and commerce can go together very well indeed.’ As an ambassador, he therefore feels the need to assist the organisation in meeting the challenge formed by allowing paying, big brands to take part in DDW in a way that suits DDW.

Images by Lisa Klappe