Dutch Design Week 2026: Design Gets R.A.W.

“Design does not begin with perfection.” This is the starting point for Dutch Design Week 2026. At a time when technology, AI and visual culture seem to be pushing towards ever more controlled, optimised and polished outcomes, Eindhoven is turning its attention to what resists control. R.A.W. – Rebel Authentic Worth is the theme of the 26th edition, taking place from 17 to 25 October: an invitation to break with established conventions, experiment, ask questions and open up new possibilities.
With more than 2,500 designers taking part, it would be impossible to identify a single direction. Yet several themes run particularly strongly through this year's programme. Materials, for a start: not simply developing new, more sustainable alternatives, but rethinking what we use, where it comes from and how it can be transformed. Folk by Studio Noff revisits broomcorn, a variety of sorghum traditionally used to make brooms and brushes, exploring its potential for contemporary design. Resistant to heat and drought and requiring little water, it is being grown experimentally with Dutch farmers, while the studio investigates its structural, tactile and aesthetic qualities, along with new ways of working with it.

It is in biodesign, however, that this shift in perspective becomes most apparent. Emma van der Leest, one of DDW26's two Beacons, curates The Biodesign Warehouse – Department Store for Life at Klokgebouw, offering an overview of a field moving from the laboratory into production. Bacteria, fungi and algae become tools for growing, fermenting and transforming materials for cosmetics, fashion, packaging, interiors and construction. Foamlab uses fermentation to develop compostable bionanocellulose foams for packaging, interiors and insulation; Fungkee Supercoating, developed by Van der Leest with biotechnologist Nick van Biezen, investigates compounds found in fungi to create a biobased, biodegradable alternative to coatings containing PFAS; SQIM/Ephea, co-founded by biodesigner Maurizio Montalti, grows mycelium into soft materials for applications including fashion, already explored in collaborations with Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta. And SeaSpark goes as far as turning biobased materials such as algae into biodegradable, plastic-free glitter.
 

But working with living organisms can also mean giving up complete control over the outcome. In Bar Mycelium, Dasha Tsapenko, together with mycologist Pim van de Noort and biotechnologist Nick van Biezen, quite literally grows a bar over the five weeks leading up to DDW. From the counter to the drinking vessels, the space takes shape through mycelium, fungi and biological processes. Her Scores for Growth methodology establishes the initial form, structure and conditions, then allows living organisms to influence the result. Where does the designer's work end and nature's begin?

The other major force shaping this edition is inevitably artificial intelligence, although here too, at least in its most compelling projects, DDW moves beyond simple celebration. transparent.citizen by Mees Boeijen / amaranth studio takes the idea of a life made entirely legible through data to its logical extreme. For one week, the designer hands over his daily life to an AI: his location, movements and other personal information become the raw material for a continuous biography, printed in real time. To read it, however, visitors must also agree to be observed. The question is no longer simply what AI can do, but how much we are willing to let it know about us.

Anab Jain of Superflux, DDW's International Beacon for 2026, also explores the relationship between technology and the future. For years, her studio has used speculative design not so much to predict what will happen as to make possible futures tangible and question their consequences. At DDW, her work therefore takes the conversation beyond any single technology: what role can design play in the face of increasingly interconnected climate, technological and social transformations?
Technology takes on a physical dimension again in House of Lights by TAM Industries, one of DDW's selected highlights. A full-scale house is 3D-printed using recycled plastic: the façade is made as a single structure, colour is embedded in the material itself and, once the building is no longer needed, that same material can be recovered and printed again. What makes the project particularly interesting is the relationship between industrial production and creative freedom. TAM develops machines and software so that the production system can adapt to the architecture, rather than the other way around.

Alongside materials, biology and technology, another question emerges: what can design achieve when it works at a collective level? The Collective Response – Design for Shared Action, another project selected among the DDW26 highlights, brings together practices centred on collaboration, community and shared action. In It Takes a Village, Yamuna Forzani creates an intimate space of tapestries, translucent curtains and places to pause, inviting reflection on what it means to belong to a community today.

Eindhoven itself is also evolving alongside the event. Building TT and the new Building TX are establishing a new hub for collectible design along the route towards Piet Hein Eek, while Building SFF in Strijp-S focuses on digital design and AI. Educational institutions remain central to the event: students and alumni from more than 30 national and international institutions, from Design Academy Eindhoven to Aalto University and the Swedish School of Textiles, present new work, while the Dutch Design Awards bring together fifteen Emerging Talents in the Class of 2026.

Rediscovered fibres, grown materials, living organisms, AI, 3D printing, craft and collective practices: Dutch Design Week 2026 does not attempt to point towards a single path, but reveals just how far the tools and boundaries of design are expanding. And perhaps this is where R.A.W. finds its most compelling meaning. Not in imperfection as an aesthetic, but in the idea that designing can also mean making room for the unexpected, questioning a process or, as in Bar Mycelium, accepting that the outcome cannot be entirely controlled.