Connecting Concepts Exhibition Eindhoven

Connecting Concepts at the Designhuis

Exhibition reveals what’s special about Dutch design

“Dutch design” is a well-known concept. Around the world, it's viewed as groundbreaking and innovative. But few people can say precisely why it's so successful. Connecting Concepts lifts the veil on what makes Dutch design special. The exhibition opened to the public on Saturday 28 January at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. It arrived in its home country after touring cities in India and China. 

The unique qualities of design from the Netherlands  

Dutch design is usually exhibited in the form of a collection of objects, often with star designers’ names attached. Connecting Concepts lays bare the processes that underlie these objects. These processes – which involve collaboration between designers and clients, the use of new and unusual technologies, and a willingness by involved parties to reinvent the wheel, sometimes literally – are what make Dutch design different and unique.

Marcel Wanders’s famous Knotted Chair is a good example. It's a product of traditional craft technique combined with contemporary knowledge and materials. In a different way, so is a dyke-strengthening project in the province of Zuid-Holland in which the sea does most of the work. Sand is dumped in strategic areas along the coast, and currents sweep it away to the spots where it's needed. The idea came from traditions of dyke building and polder draining and was transformed by contemporary knowledge and design thinking.

In Connecting Concepts, curator Ed van Hinte – known for projects including Lightness Studios – reveals the main principles that the participating designers have in common. He draws links between the various objects and the processes behind them, literally connecting concepts.

A dynamic exhibition

Connecting Concepts is a travelling exhibition that remains open to adding new designs and principles, from the Netherlands and especially from other countries it has visited, which so far include India, China and Turkey. In doing so, we engage in dialogue with different design cultures, with the help of visitors, designers and producers.

Connecting Concepts

Dates: Saturday 28 January–Sunday 20 May

Location: Designhuis, Stadhuisplein 3, Eindhoven

Connecting Concepts is curated by Ed van Hinte and is a project of Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Capital D, the design association for Eindhoven’s Brainport region. 

The exhibition is part of the Dutch Design Fashion Architecture programme.