Rujak Plaza, a transformation of quiet roads in Jakarta

The What if Lab Sustainable public spaces exhibition is now on display at Erasmus Huis in Jakarta. After months of doing research, engaging in neighbourhood conversations, and organising workshops, the designers have finalised the concept and translated it into an exhibition. But what exactly...

25 March 2024
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A new entrance for Eindhoven

Eindhoven is the design capital of the Netherlands, but this is not (yet) sufficiently visible to everyone. In October, during Dutch Design Week, you see design everywhere in the city. But where in the public space do you see it the rest of the...

7 March 2024
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We look back at What if Lab in 2023

With the new year approaching, it’s time to take a look back at 2023. For it was a year full of meaningful collaborations, innovative designs and further developments. From new What if Labs to projects from completed labs, all developments came to a peak at...

12 December 2023
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What if Lab at InnovatieExpo 2023

This year, What if Lab was part of the Innovation Expo! How can we harness design power for societal transitions? On behalf of Dutch Design Foundation, we showed that through four What if Labs. We took visitors of InnovationExpo into a reality where the...

27 November 2023
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New choices for mixed-use spaces in the city

Think of places with friction: industry opposes housing, mobility opposes liveability or nature opposes agriculture. In What if Lab: Rethinking shared space, designers, in collaboration with Sweco, make new choices for these areas. Space & Matter, Starling Associates and cocosmos have each developed future-proof,...

2 October 2023
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Totaal Lokaal: what does the self-sufficient city of the future look like?

Title Lab: Totaal Lokaal (Totally Local)Design Question: What if… our cities were fully self-sufficient?Commisioner: Sweco Design Studio’s: Bram de Vos, Studio Floris Schoonderbeek & Studio Tjeerd VeenhovenPeriod: May 2022 – October 2022 Too wet or too dry, too hot or too cold, a scarcity of raw...

24 August 2023
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These designers will create an iconic entry for Eindhoven

Eindhoven is the design capital of the Netherlands, but this is not (yet) sufficiently visible to everyone. In October, during Dutch Design Week, you see design everywhere in the city. But where in the public space do you see it the rest of the...

11 July 2023
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These designers will transform public spaces in Jakarta

Meet the designers of What if Lab: sustainable public spaces! In the second collaboration with Erasmushuis Jakarta, Dutch and Indonesian designers will form a team to design a prototype for neighbourhoods in Indonesia that currently lack access to shared community spaces. On the 12th...

6 June 2023
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Multifunctional bridges for city life

Amsterdam municipality manages around 1,800 bridges and 600 kilometres of quays. The many bridges and quay walls connect neighbourhoods and districts and give the city character. Many are not meant for the heavy traffic that crosses them these days. One option to save the...

21 March 2023
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A new vision for unused space under viaducts

What will the meeting space of the future look like? With this question, Sweco, Europe’s largest architectural and engineering firm, participated in the What if Lab: Well-being in the City in 2021. Of the diverse ideas submitted, a five-member panel chose the Shadow Spaces...

3 November 2022
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Social design offers a new perspective on elderly care

Everyone is directly or indirectly affected by old age. Nevertheless, we prefer to leave the thinking about this to health-care institutions. Due to the double ageing of the population, the elderly who require of care is growing, while fewer and fewer people are employed...

27 September 2022
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SUNSEEKER and the power of collaboration

In 2018, VANTOT won the SolarSquare Design Challenge for their first design of the SUNSEEKER. The commission from the municipality of Eindhoven and Solliance: design a work of art using Solliance flexible solar panels for the future Victoria Park in Eindhoven. In October 2018,...

9 February 2021
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