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Design driven innovation at the Hannover Messe
Last week I spent a day at the Hannover Messe. I was invited by ClickNL/Design, the research and innovation network of the design sector in the Netherlands, to do a talk at the seminar “Creative Solutions/Neue Kombinationen” with the ominous subtitle “The future of German Dutch Co-creation”. In the lineup some big names like designer and artist Daan Roosegaarde and our Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science, Sander Dekker.
The goal of this seminar was to show and discuss the impact of creative solutions when combined with industrial strengths and backed by thorough research. According to the invitation flyer, Germany and the Netherlands “possess complementary qualities in these fields; when combined these will give lead to both business opportunities and solutions for our societal challenges”.
After a short introduction by our Secretary of State, Daan Roosegaarde showed a full auditorium an overview of the national and international projects that he presently works on with his creative studio, located in the small town of Waddinxveen. Roosegaarde creates interactive designs that explore the dynamic relationships between people, technology and space and his best works border on technological poetry with a clear social and/or environmental impact.
Image of Daan Roosegaarde’s “Smart Highway” project.
Light emitting crystals create visual poetry relating to Vincent van Gogh’s famous artwork “starry night” near his birth place in Zundert, the Netherlands.
Markus Kayser is a German designer and 3D artist who works out of London. Kayser’s aim is to engage in discussion about opportunities in the production of design involving new as well as forgotten processes and technologies. The studio draws from science, art and engineering and aims to blur gaps between seemingly separate fields. His “Solar Sinter” project explores 3D printing possibilities using only the available sun and sand, working with a simple mobile lab at a remote location in the Egyptian desert.
Markus Kayser’s mobile 3D printing lab in the Egyptian desert.
A result of his 3D printing experiment using bundled sun rays and pure desert sand.
After these two impressive designer/artist presentations, I climbed on the stage to present our slightly more mundane work for NS Dutch Railways and ProRail as an example of a cross-over collaboration, illustrating the added value of bringing creative people into multidisciplinary teams that look beyond the borders of their own sectors.
Here’s the slide deck of my presentation at the Hannover Messe.
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