Embassy of Health

How do we change our attitude about health? It’s time that we look for other routes and perspectives to make society healthier and prevent healthcare from becoming too expensive and unattainable. We know what is coming our way, and we feel the pressure on the labour market, on the waiting lists and on our wallets. However, it’s hard to change the reality. It requires adjusting our way of thinking, acting and working together. This year, the Embassy of Health will focus on how and especially which mindset contributes to moving towards a chronically healthy society.

In the Chronic Health exhibition, we show examples, processes and the results of an agile, responsible and learning mindset.

New collaborations

How do we ensure that we start moving and stay that way? A designing attitude teaches us not to look for the one best solution but to try out many different options. We make room and time for change. In that space, there is room to make mistakes, learn from them and try again. Experimenting makes us agile. It helps us adapt, let go of the old and familiar and enter into new collaborations. For example, a hospital and a housing corporation can explore the neighbourhood to grow in a new, shared role to support the vitality and health of neighbourhood residents. 

Long-term

How do we make responsible long-term choices? Can we unlearn short-term thinking? On a societal level, a healthy body is of little use to us when it moves on a polluted, uninhabitable planet. At the level of the individual, the challenge is to make healthy choices today with a delayed, positive effect on our old age. Design helps us step out of the here and now and see things in the vista of the future that is yet to be coloured in. 

Embracing diversity

How do we adopt an open and curious attitude? How do we learn from each other beyond our own framework? We take lessons from nature and the palette of people in society. Health presents different challenges for everyone, and not everyone has the same opportunities. Fully embracing diversity requires us to avoid picking just one route to achieve health. In this way, we imagine what it is like to live with a chronic illness or what access to care looks like when you experience financial stress. We form a learning context in which we embrace polyphony and build on each other. 

In this Chronic Health exhibition, we invite you to adopt different perspectives and attitudes. In the in-depth programme, together, we can practice the design mindset so that we can move step by step towards chronic health.

Marleen van Bergeijk is the Creative Lead of this Embassy. She is active as a freelance social designer with a focus on health and well-being. In 2016 she graduated in Industrial Design from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Driven by her personal experience – Van Bergeijk had to deal with juvenile rheumatism at a young age – she looks at the health care system from a human perspective. In her work, she brings together social shifts and technology and investigates how to translate them into connecting social interaction.

Since 2020 she is part of the collective Kade Clubhuis, a workshop full of social makers in Eindhoven. Marleen is a connector in the creative field. For example, since 2018 she has been part of the program team of Dutch Design Week and she is one of the initiators of The Social Design Lobby, where she makes a strong case for the positioning of the (social) design field within social issues.

Programme

Embassy of Health
Projects
Show only:

Monuments for Future M/otherhood

28 Sep 2022

Health Overshoot Day

28 Sep 2022

Improving maternal health care of vulnerable women

28 Sep 2022

Reuma (on)zichtbaar

28 Sep 2022

Kleinkijkacademie

28 Sep 2022

Data Donor Club

28 Sep 2022

Denkles

28 Sep 2022

Design for generations

28 Sep 2022

EDUBox at Ketelhuisplein

28 Sep 2022

ENCOUNTER#9, superhero or design zero?

28 Sep 2022
Events

Past events

Updates

Filter on type

  • Editiorial
  • News
  • Podcast
  • Video
  • Clear filters
Editiorial

2022 Retrospective: Embassy of Health

Editiorial

Looking at care differently, the conference of the Embassy of Health opens people’s eyes

Video

Curator Tour: Experience the mindset for a chronically healthy society

News

From the margin to the middle

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Lisa Mandemaker

Editiorial

The mindset for a chronically healthy society

Podcast

Van het podcastje naar de muur #7

Podcast

Van het podcastje naar de muur #6

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Hollandse Luchten

News

Marleen van Bergeijk new curator Embassy of Health

Podcast

Van het podcastje naar de muur #4

Podcast

Van het podcastje naar de muur #3

Podcast

Van het podcastje naar de muur #2

Podcast

Luister nu Van het podcastje naar de muur

Video

Watch the WDE Talk: How can we make society healthier together?

Editiorial

Retrospective 2021: Embassy of Health

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Reframing Studio

News

Your role in the transition to chronic health

Video

Curator Tour: Jetske van Oosten shows how you can contribute to collective health

News

Embassy of Health at DDW

Embassy of Health
Editiorial

Better healthcare: ‘Everyone can make a difference’

Dutch Design Week
News

This is what the Embassies will present at Dutch Design Week

Video

Watch the WDE Talk: Shaping a liveable and healthy environment for all

Editiorial

Retrospective 2020: Embassy of Health

News

What brings a social designer to a nursing home?

Editiorial

The future of care is intimate (and two more propositions worth reflecting on)

Editiorial

Retrospective 2019: Embassy of Health

Partners of Embassy of Health

chapter-arrow icon-arrow-down icon-arrow-short icon-arrow-thin icon-close-super-thin icon-play icon-social-facebook icon-social-instagram icon-social-linkedin icon-social-twitter icon-social-youtube