The complete WDE podcast series
World Design Embassies connect designers with companies and stakeholders across specific themes to look at the challenges we face as a society in a quickly-changing world, and the role design can play. In this podcast series, we speak to both curators and practitioners about the challenges they face, and the solutions they envision for future societies.
Climate change, urbanization, the increasing use of technology in our lives… where is it all leading, and how can we shape our society in a positive, meaningful way? In this episode, we take a look back at Dutch Design Week 2019. What was on offer? What connections were made? And how were people inspired? Marianne Aarnoudse, program manager of World Design Embassies at Dutch Design Foundation, takes us to each of the embassies’ pavilions and explains the solutions they’re working towards, and the public’s reaction.
Listen to our other episodes on the Embassies of Circular & Biobased Building, Health, Mobility, Safety, Sustainable Design and Water here.
Embassy of Circular & Biobased Building
Architect Marco Vermeulen and Lucas de Man, creative director of Company New Heroes, discuss how the construction industry needs to embrace more circular and biobased building materials – like wood, and even mushrooms. Curator Rob Adams, founder of Six Fingers, weighs in on how this can contribute to a carbon neutral world.
Embassy of Health
Designer Frank Kolkman, ambassador to the Embassy of Health, and Jetske van Oosten, one of the Embassy’s curators, discuss the role of designers in the future of healthcare, who should be responsible for those in need of it and what defines the quality of care.
Embassy of Mobility
Rob Adams, the curator of the Embassy of Mobility, talks about how mobility is more about quality of life than it is about transportation and infrastructure. Designer Nikol Kirova introduces her project Synapse, which captures anonymous data via responsive sidewalk tiles to improve how we get around.
Embassy of Safety
Safety and resilience expert Hans Boutellier and curator Tabo Goudswaard talk about how our ideas of safety have changed over time and the challenges we face now, including how organized crime undermines our daily lives, and how exposing how hard drugs are manufactured can change our moral ambiguity about taking them.
Embassy of Sustainable Design
How has sustainable design evolved, and how can we play our part in its future? The curators of the Embassy for Sustainable Design Leonne Cuppen (designer and owner of Yksi Connect) and Teun van Wetten (design director at VanBerlo) discuss sustainable design as a circular process, and the importance of collaboration to create change.
Embassy of Water
Anouk van de Poll, the curator and initiator of the Embassy of Water, and young designer Valentina Mariño tell us how looking closely at our organic connection with water can help improve water quality and circularity.
Join us during Dutch Design Week 2020, when the Embassies take on a physical form – in exhibitions, lectures, discussions and workshops – so that ideas, expertise and insight can be shared, with experts but also with the general public. October 17-15, 2020 in Eindhoven.