Refugee tips by Koert van Mensvoort

During Dutch Design Week designers ensure that we cannot ignore the current refugee issue. Ambassador Koert van Mensvoort thinks it is great to see that so many designers have visions and solutions for the current situation. An extremely urgent social challenge for which we need the creativity of designers. Which is why we have made a list of all the projects for you here. 

Refugees: [Judge - Experience - Share] by Industrial Design TU/e & Necker van Naem

Interactive expo about refugees in the Netherlands: judge, experience and share perspectives

Design For Humanity by VANBLEND

A design hackathon to create new perspectives to address the European refugee crisis.

DIT is ook Design - VDMA DIT is een ook Design Dorp door DIT (Do It Together)

REFUGEES is an interactive exhibition that invites visitors to exchange thoughts about the actual refugee crisis.

59.5 miljoen en jij by Industrial Design TU/e & Necker van Naem

A large number of men, women and children are fleeing. Tens of thousands of people are on their way to a safe place in Europe. We see images, harrowing images, on television, in newspapers and through social media. And suddenly these images get really close, when refugees are housed in your own neighbourhood. What is that like? Who are these people? How do we deal with this?

Mind the step by Technische Universiteit Eindhoven & Design United

Healthcare Environment & Activity Design (HEAD) game - Julia Garde  

It’s your world

Our daily waste, the manufacture of mobile telephones, the bacteria on our skin or asylum seekers who have been denied residency. These are not topics we immediately associate with design. But these are in fact the areas where smart design or the power of imagination in design can make a difference. It’s Your World presents four mini-exhibitions in which designers show how they see our world.

It’s Your World TALK with Let’s Hibernate & Studio Drift

Sun 18 Oct 12:30 - 13:30

Should you want a more in depth view into the design world, join ‘It’s your World’ for some new insights! The programme is in Dutch. 

Dutch Design Awards Exhibition

MANON VAN HOECKEL - In Limbo Embassy

A mobile embassy for asylum seekers 'in limbo' who have exhausted all legal procedures: those who fall between two stools. The neutral meeting place creates an opportunity for citizens and asylum seekers, for debate and cultural exchange. In addition, the embassy offers asylum seekers the opportunity of working under the freedom of press and expression. This offers an alternative for existing news reports and a currently often invisible group is given a face and a voice.

CLEVERºFRANKE - CLEVERºFRANKE - Migration in the census and in the news

In cooperation with the University of Sheffield and The Migration Observatory this research project maps out how people interpret the visualisations of big data. Two different visualisations have been made that both explore the same topic (migration). One focuses on quantitative data based on the 2011 census, and the second is based on seven years of news attention for migration.

SUBMARINE CHANNEL - Refugee Republic

Interactive online documentary about day-to-day life in a Syrian refugee camp Domiz in North Iraq, where around 58,000 refugees have found accommodation. They gradually transform the camp from a temporary shelter to an improvised city where people live and work, attend school, start companies, marry, argue and have fun. In the multimedia mix (drawings, photos, film, sound and text) from Refugee Republic you roam through the camp, meet the refugees and see the world behind the aid organisation’s posters

Graduation Show Design Academy Eindhoven

Stefania Vulpi
 - UNIVERSAL UNCONDITIONAL


Citizenship is a fixed thing, regulated by international laws and agreements. To come from a certain country can be a privilege or a hindrance. Is this fair? Universal Unconditional is a concept that envisions a new idea of citizenship, flexible and temporary. An attempt to balance the current system with more equality, by creating a structure of solidarity and support. What if in the time we spend living abroad we could lend our citizenship to somebody in our country who needs one? What if we could borrow the one that we need? Would be possible? Would it be positive? The debate is open. 

Pim van der Mijl
 - The Living Room

A social design method that, by utilizing individual skills of asylum seekers, creates an actual platform for integration. 

Giuditta Vendrame - “What is the purpose of your visit?” A journey towards the high seas. 

Today the relations between the State, the individual, and physical territory are in flux. I undertook a journey on the Mediterranean Sea to reach an unclaimed, stateless space, a territory that could be considered a zero degree zone. There I collected 50 liters of international waters, to later ship them.