Since Philips closed most of its production sites in Eindhoven in the last years and moved it to cheaper countries in the Eastern world, there was a big gap to be filled in a city with around 200,000 inhabitants. It seems the city did the right thing in promoting its creative and cultural sector…

There was a broad mix to be found at this year’s Dutch Design Week. Most recongnizable was the Graduation show of the Design Academy Eindhoven. It’s not that ROGER is a believer of ratings like that of Business Week, defining the best 25 design schools in the world but it seems that the Design Academy Eindhoven deserves that decoration. If you don’t want to go into details, just have a look at the picture gallery. But there are some projects ROGER wants to draw your attention to.

Something really new in the way of silk production was presented by Elsbeth Joy Nielsen. Usually silkworms are thrown into boiling water when they cocooned themselves – which is the end of life. Now the young designer had the idea of an sustainable silk production: before starting the cocooning she puts the silkworm on a shaped piece of carton board which is held by a stick that is centered on the downside. The silkworm then starts trying to escape from this »platform« – without success of course as it fall down at the edges of the carton. In the two days of crossing the carton in the search of an escape the silkworm so spins a random net of silk. The result is a very Continue Reading »