CARADT at Dutch Design Week 2025

The annual Dutch Design Week brings together designers, researchers, and educators from around the world to explore how design can shape more sustainable, inclusive, and imaginative futures. This year, Dutch Design Week takes place from Saturday October 18 to Sunday October 26 in Eindhoven: nine-days bursting with creativity, mind-blowing ideas, and celebrations. CARADT takes part in Dutch Design Week through participating in the installation Avans District 2035. This installation is a collaboration between all centres of applied research at Avans. Also, several researchers will participate in presentations, public programmes, and a book launch.

Avans District 2035

What will our society look like in 2035? During Dutch Design Week, the research centers of Avans University of Applied Sciences invites you to explore Avans District 2035 – an interactive neighbourhood of the future where societal challenges become tangible, and research forms the foundation for a more sustainable world.

Avans District 2035 will be presented in Klokgebouw, hal 4, Strijp-S, Eindhoven. This installation is a collaboration between all centres of applied research at Avans: MNEXT, Wellbeing Economy and New Entrepreneurship, Safe & Resilient Society, Perspective in Health, Future-Proof Education and Art, Design and Technology (CARADT).

As part of Avans District 2035, CARADT will present three projects that reflect its practice-based and critical approach to shaping regenerative, inclusive, and imaginative futures through artistic and design research- and strategies.

More information about the Avans’ Centres of Applied Research

Tactile Beats

By Antal Ruhl

What does music feel like when it’s not just heard, but also seen and sensed? Tactile Beats explores how technology can expand musical expression through multisensory design. This prototype emits smoke rings in synchrony with the musical rhythm and invites audiences to reimagine the experience of music. The project explores how tactility, sound, and visual rhythm can contribute to an inclusive and experimental musical experience in which imagination, aesthetics, and the senses meet.

Nomadic Lab Coat — A local, seasonal outdoors approach

By Professor Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Hugo F. Garcia, Ariane Fourquier, and Michaela Davidová

Designed through co-design workshops, field walks, and material experiments, this nomadic lab coat was developed in collaboration with foragers, RAD researchers, lab technicians, a fashion designer, and art & design students. The project explores how clothing can bridge scientific and artistic practice with embodied environmental knowledge. In contrast to globalised supply chains and sterile lab environments, it proposes a local, seasonal, and relational approach. Presented by DISCO (Design for Inter Species Collectives Laboratory) of CARADT’s Regenerative Art and Design group, the installation reimagines biolabs as ecologically attuned spaces that engage with landscapes and regenerative design transitions.

Studium Generale 2025 – Refuse Revive Regenerate

By bas van den hurk and Wander Eikelboom

What could a regenerative future look like and how can education help shape it? This installation presents highlights from Studium Generale 2025, CARADT’s event for students, teachers, and researchers within Avans Creative Innovation academy. Under the theme Refuse Revive Regenerate, the programme brought together workshops, conversations, and experiments to explore how art, design, and technology can contribute to a more resilient future. Featured here are the poetic report (written by Marinda Pieron, printed by Machteld van de Voorde) and a short film of the event, capturing its atmosphere, creativity, and imagination.

The Poetic Report by Marinda Pieron will be presented in a regenerative print, developed by Machteld van de Voorde. For this print, ink was made from materials collected in the garden of the St. Joost School of Art and Design in Breda.

Also featured within Avans District 2035 are Serious Game Mind the Gap by Jenny van den Broeke and The New Canterbury Tales, both presented by the Centre of Expertise Safe & Resilient Society. CARADT researchers contributed to these projects, which explore storytelling and serious gaming as tools to strengthen social resilience and collective awareness.

Other CARADT contributions

Beyond Avans District 2035, CARADT researchers are contributing to several other Dutch Design Week events that highlight our ongoing collaborations and impact in the field of art, design, and technology.

‘Second Skin’ by Hazal Ertürkan

A continuation of the exhibition Microbiome-Centric Dining through Second Skin, this new iteration further explores the intersection of the human body, material agency, and microbial ecosystems.

Book Launch ‘Applied Design Research: The Societal Impact’

On Monday 20 October, Risk Hazekamp will attend the book launch of Applied Design Research: The Societal Impact (in press, expected November 2025) by the Network Applied Design Research, to which they have contributed a chapter. The book explores how applied design researchers catalyze societal change, examining how design research can address complex transitions in areas such as sustainability, circular economy, and healthcare, and how design interventions can generate systemic impact across materials, services, and socio-technical ecosystems.

During the event, together with Jet van der Touw, Risk will deliver a short presentation about their chapter in the book and their ongoing collaboration within the NADR network.

More about the book Applied Design Research: The Societal Impact

Collective Innovation for the Biobased Transition

From the research project Collective Innovation for the Biobased Transition, Rikst Westra will join the ClickNL Design Innovation Session: Equal Society on Friday 24 October. Together with Andreas Krüger, Rikst will present their recent project that explored the democratic model of a ‘mission economy’, supported by a strong public sector. Read more about their contribution to this Design Innovation Session in this LinkedIn post

This session is part of the Design Innovation Sessions programme, held each morning from 20 to 24 October at Natlab, Eindhoven. The session focus is on the theme ‘Equal Society: Designing just transitions’, exploring how design can help ensure that no one is left behind in the major systemic shifts of our time. Expect a mix of research insights, design-driven and practical approaches to inclusive innovation.

More about the ClickNL Design Innovation Session: Equal Society

Note

This article is a work in progress and will be updated as more details become available. Therefore, the information is subject to change.