At the Heart of Design Biennale Rotterdam 2025: The Rise of the Dutch Design Powerhouse
Rotterdam Design Biennale 2025 Embraces Unfamiliar Design Frontiers
The Rotterdam Design Biennale 2025, running until 2 March 2025, is a celebration of experimental design that challenges traditional norms and encourages designers to embrace the creative process, even if it means imperfect outcomes. The central theme for this inaugural event is "What's Real is Unfamiliar," inviting designers to explore unfamiliar themes and push the boundaries of design.
The Nieuwe Instituut, a leading cultural institution in Rotterdam, is hosting the Biennale. Aric Chen, the general and artistic director of the Nieuwe Instituut, oversees the event. The Biennale takes place in disused buildings around the city, including Baanhof and W70.
The Nieuwe Instituut is also hosting a series of talks and symposiums as part of the Rotterdam Design Biennale. The institution plays a policy role in national initiatives, including projects in Dakar, Senegal, Indonesia, and New York.
The Biennale features work from over 200 studios, spanning furniture, sculpture, and hand-crafted work. Many designers focus on experimental work that challenges the role of design and its interplay with diversity, social justice, and ecology.
One such exhibition is 'Garden Futures' at the Nieuwe Instituut, which explores the role of gardens in climate adaptation and biodiversity. Other exhibitions include 'A Promise of Happiness' and solo shows like those of Laurids Gallée.
The Rotterdam Design Biennale is a not-for-profit grassroots event, co-founded by Liv Vaisberg and Sarah Schulten. The Biennale's website is designbiennalerotterdam.com.
Rotterdam recently opened Fenix, an international art museum at a historic warehouse site. This museum integrates architectural innovation with historical themes of migration, reflecting the city's focus on reimagining spaces and narratives.
The 2025 Rotterdam Design Biennale combines unfamiliar thematic explorations, experimental design practices, and a contemporary sustainability discourse, inviting visitors to rethink conventional design boundaries and embrace the complexity behind creation and functionality.
In addition to the exhibitions, visitors can also explore the museum part of the Nieuwe Instituut, which includes an archive and collection, and organizes exhibitions and public programs. Designers like Giles Tettey Nartey and Adam Maryniak are among those showcasing their work, with Tettey Nartey creating stools and headrests that draw from the vernacular of portable wooden headrests commonly used in West Africa, and Maryniak utilizing offcuts such as wood architrave and plywood in his designs.
The Rotterdam Design Biennale is a testament to the city's commitment to progressive design and its role in rethinking and reimagining spaces, much like the practices of OMA and MVRDV, which helped redefine Rotterdam after WW2. The De Rotterdam three-tower complex and the Depot Boijmans van Beuningen are examples of projects by these practices that have contributed to the city's culture of design innovation.
References:
[1] Rotterdam Design Biennale 2025. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://rotterdamdesignbiennale.com/
[2] Design Biennale Rotterdam 2025. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.nieuweinstituut.nl/en/program/design-biennale-rotterdam-2025
[3] Rotterdam Design Biennale 2025: What's Real is Unfamiliar. (2023, January 24). Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.designboom.com/architecture/rotterdam-design-biennale-2025-whats-real-is-unfamiliar-01-24-2023/
[4] Fenix Museum Opens in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (2021, September 17). Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/fenix-museum-opens-in-rotterdam-netherlands
[5] Fenix Museum Opens in Rotterdam, Netherlands. (2021, September 17). Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.dezeen.com/2021/09/17/fenix-museum-opens-rotterdam-netherlands-historic-warehouse-site-architecture-bureau-knight-architects/
The Rotterdam Design Biennale 2025 encourages designers to delve into home-and-garden thematics, such as the 'Garden Futures' exhibition that focuses on the role of gardens in climate adaptation and biodiversity, reflecting the Biennale's central theme of unfamiliar explorations. Furthermore, the Biennale's sustainable discourse invites participants to contemplate the lifestyle implications of experimental design practices, pushing boundaries and redefining traditional notions of design.
