by nanci tangeman Invasion of the They’re everywhere! They’re everywhere! Like some B-movie invasion, Dutch designers seem to have con- quered the world. There’s no place to hide (they’re in Dutch our wardrobes and our pedal bins!) and no place to esıgners run (they’ve taken control from Las Vegas to Gdansk). D The only choice is to pull on a pair of G-Star jeans and a MEXX tee shirt, lie back on your Tejo Remy chair, pop marcel wanders open a Grolsch in a Swingtop bottle – and surrender. jurgen bey designer in the world’ according to icon bible on Dutch design, False Flat: Why offices to the boarders on the half pipe On weekends, this temple to design is Magazine. BMW, Vitra, Cappellini and Dutch design is so good. He knows what when it was constructed a few years ago. packed with style-conscious locals; during marcel wanders Maharam all have Dutch designers work- he’s talking about. the week, in-the-know tourists file in, ing for them. Of course, there’s more to the story than quickly folding their maps, trying to look And (dare we take this horror-movie ‘Both the environment and objects are a swamp. There are centuries of govern- hip. It’s the place to find out, first-hand, metaphor one step further?) there are designed with more care here – every- ment policies and the social welfare why Dutch design is so important. even giant blobs ‘attacking’ in the form thing from tax forms to stamps to the system and many other forces at work. of Kas Oosterhuis’ building projects. roads and cities. This comes from the Along the way they brought us guilder ‘I think it’s because we have the right cli- country having deliberate policies to notes that blossomed in bright sunflow- mate,’ say Dick Dankers, founder of Nobody is safe! The invasion is complete. cover these things, and I speculate here, ers, postage stamps that were more works Frozen Fountain. ‘We Dutch have always from this being an artificial country.’ of art than commerce, the first industrial been open to new influences and so have It came from Outer Space: Or did it? Because it started from a swamp. designers (at Philips), bloated postal Road- a natural openness to new designs.’ Looking at designs by Dutch architects runner bike carriers, Gerrit Rietveld’s that have ‘landed’ recently – the Mezz When you create every square meter of Red/Blue chair, Gispen’s tubular steel Dankers laughs about the British design Pop Center in Breda (Erick van Egeraat), land, you’re careful about how you use it, furniture, the CD player – and that’s just store Habitat’s attempted romance with for instance, or the ING Group headquar- what you build on it, and what you use the short list! Amsterdammers. ‘When Habitat came ters in Amsterdam (Meyer en Van while you live on it. here, they were selling the same glass for The invasion is complete. There are no MEXX. Oilily. Laundry Industry. Viktor & Schooten) – it seems like this Dutch Cut to the chase? Today we have a 6 guilders that HEMA sold for 1.50. The more battlegrounds. Dutch designers Rolf. Gsus. invasion came by way of outer space. That mainstay of Dutch society, the polder worldwide invasion of Dutch design. Dutch wouldn’t put up with that. In the have conquered the world on all fronts. They’ve infiltrated our offices, our But in truth – it emerged from a swamp. model – everyone working together; every- US or UK, HEMA would be a top design They’ve taken control of our buildings (at homes, our restaurants, our museums, one happy when they leave the bargaining Take us to your leaders store. Here? It’s just HEMA.’ least their design) and neighbourhoods: and every design headline: Hella ‘The whole country was designed, just in table – also stemmed from these muddy To pay homage to contemporary Dutch Las Vegas’ Guggenheim Museum (Rem Jongerius has commissions ranging from order to inhabit and use it. So I think we roots. It’s a valuable system for deciding design, start with industrial design and But Dankers’ Frozen Fountain is anything Koolhaas/OMA); low-income housing Ikea to the Museum of Modern Art in take more care.’ Aaron Betsky says he’s how land is to be used, according to home décor. In Amsterdam, there are but HEMA. For over two decades, the outside of Madrid (MVRDV); a new mas- New York. Piet Hein Eek collaborates on hypothesizing, but you have to give him Betsky. An example: the Skatepark Blaak, two mandatory stops. First: The Frozen store has featured self-producing (prima- terplan for Gdansk, Poland (Mecanoo). Conran restaurants in London and his some credit. He is, after all, the director a skateboard park on the southern edge of Fountain, a bright orange storefront on rily Dutch) designers and craftspeople. A furniture is sold (and collected) around of the Netherlands Architecture Institute Rotterdam, that seemed to satisfy every- the Prinsengracht that could easily be tour through the store is a tour through They’re hiding in our closets: G-Star. the world. Marcel Wanders is, the ‘hottest in Rotterdam. And he did co-write the one from the workers in the adjoining mistaken for an ice cream store. the top names in Dutch industrial design. 4 april/may 2006 roundabout roundabout april/may 2006 5 Seeing is believing What’s the best way to appreciate what’s around you? Here are ten tips to discovering Dutch design: 1. ‘Get on a bicycle. It’s the best way to see the country. Walking is too slow and a car is too fast. Bicycling allows you to see the country in motion, in time, and appreciate it. The cities are designed by manipulating and using piet hein eek space. The Amsterdam Zuid areas where the housing blocks stretch out along the streets, but the corners have ornaments – there’s almost a theatrical drama when all these buildings are massed together,’ says Aaron Betsky of Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. 2. Fill out your tax form. Get on a yellow and blue train and trundle through the green meadows. Admire a postal work- onl (oosterhuis & lénárd) jurgen bey er riding by on a red Roadrunner, then post a letter with a butterfly stamp designed by Irma Boom. One of the most The metal cases that line the store are by home textiles company in the US, com- bathroom after a shower. Today Droog walk. (Not to mention a change of cloth- made design by the Dutch more remarkable aspects of Dutch culture is how many of the Piet Hein Eek, better known for his furni- missioned work from her. It’s the same in Design has a growing range of ‘afford- ing from MEXX, G-Star, Laundry Industry, liberating. If you are confined by a objects, images and spaces one encounters every day have ture made from wrecked wood. ‘The cases Tokyo and France, where she was design- able’ products, such as the best-selling Gsus or Mart Visser!) legacy, it doesn’t allow you to look been designed. Notice. look like they could have been made in er of the year.’ Despite this alleged lack of Strap, by NL Architects, a style diva’s at fashion as something that is 3. Visit a VINEX location. The Dutch government decided with 1910, but they fit into 2006,’ says fame in her home country, Jongerius’ answer to the bungee cord. Even with all the big names dropping solely contemporary.’ the VINEX Program to build around 750,000 homes Dankers. ‘Piet connects to the big Dutch Nymphenburg Sketches have just been into closets around the world, Dutch between 1995 and 2015 in newly invented compact cities. designers before the war. He picks up acquired by the Stedelijk Museum in Bakker explained in icon Magazine this fashion design is not as prolific as Dutch And from James Veenhof and Steve Says Betsky, ‘This is one of the few attempts in the world their traditions, but not consciously.’ Amsterdam. year: ‘We want to make design more industrial, home or architectural design. TePas, founders of Amsterdam to design sprawl. The Dutch have said that sprawl is hap- normal. You make something more Still, it has its fans. International Fashion Week: ‘Where pening, so what are we going to do about it? See how Inside Eek’s cabinet is a vase by Marcel There’s no question about designer normal when it is accessible to people. Paris and Milan represent the tradi- they’re weaving new buildings with meadows and dense Wanders. Its shape was formed by placing Jurgen Bey’s Dutch fame. He won the Not only the top people.’ ‘I defy any woman from Milan, Paris, New tional couture industry, Amsterdam housing and civic monuments and schools. This is not eggs inside a condom. Dankers trots over Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Award for York or LA to brave the weather on a bicy- offers a younger more dynamic something that is done elsewhere.’ Ypenburg is a typical to his computer to show me another Applied Arts and Architecture last year. Attack of the architects! cle and look as good as a Dutch woman alternative. There is room here for location. www.archex.info. Wanders design: the snotty vase. ‘He And, as for Job Smeets, of Studio Job (also The nation that gave us Amsterdam does,’ says Victor Portes, who has just put new ideas and fresh thinking.’ 4. Be a fashion spotter. ‘Look and you start finding things you filmed people sneezing in slow motion featured at the Stedelijk), says Dankers: School Architecture now gives us marvel- together a book about the Dutch fashion don’t see in London or New York or Paris,’ says Victor and then created a mould that duplicated ‘Job is somewhere in between art and lous creations that have to be seen to be industry.