Christoph Seyferth likes to play with dimensions of scale. Some years ago he designed and built his own house, based on the simple principle of a rectangular box, dressed up in aging oak tree wood. In this big box sits another smaller rectangular box, built out of wood and inspired by the same powerful aesthetics.(…)
The scale of both boxes is different, and while the principles of design remained the same, other functions are possible. Thus illustrating for Seyferth how everything is part of one and the same language. A language based on the axioms of functionality, flexibility, permanence and subject to a modest sense of beauty. Seyferth believes in materials and his caring treatment of for example wood, steel or leather reveals the crafty approach of the artisan. (…)This year, under the headline: thuis (home), a first series of handmade products are launched, consisting of, among other things, a table, a small bench, a purse, a hat-rack and a lamp. Designs that, piece by piece, convince by a daring but elegant vocabulary of images, the finishing touch of the artisan, but mostly by an uncomplicated presence.

The thuis-collection represents a timeless group of products, re-invented for our present time to answer the call for a place for oneself, a place called thuis.

Guus Beumer

Droog, the City of Amsterdam and Ymere present Redlight Design: a project that connects the work of eight young jewellery designers with the Amsterdam Redlight area. A full-commitment task since the designers will be living and working in houses that were formerly used by prostitutes. During ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008, the Redlight Designers will dress their windows on the theme of ‘Space and Place’.
As part of a strategy to rid the famous Redlight District of criminality, whilst maintaining prostitution as a legal activity, housing corporations are purchasing buildings in the district. Before they are converted, the City of Amsterdam gives (inter)national tcreative practitioners a unique chance to showcase their talent in the famous windows during one year. In January 2008 the City of Amsterdam started Redlight Fashion together with housing corporation NV Stadsgoed and HTNK, responsible for selecting the fashion designers. This project gained worldwide publicity for Amsterdam, and the city’s fashion industry. The City of Amsterdam now starts Redlight Design, in the Oude Kerk area, with their partners housing corporation Ymere and Droog.


Redlight Designers: Gijs Bakke, Ted Noten, Gesine Hackenberg, Frédéric Braham, Iris Nieuwenburg, Sebastian Buescher, Jantje Fleischhut, Susanne Klemm.

Our society is driven by an obsession with gathering personal data. Politicians and businesses say it's for our own good, and we collaborate by filling in countless databases with our personal details on Hyves, Facebook, YouTube and our local supermarket. But what if we can't trust those who have access to this data? In that instance, all usual means of communication become useless. We will not be able to mail, call, sms, etc. So, what if we have something to hide?

For several months, students of the post-graduate design department of the Sandberg Institute have taken refuge in an age-old communications medium, and exchanged messages about their 'secret' actions addressing privacy in the city - by pigeon post. During ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008, the project continues at a pigeon house built for this occasion, which doubles as a billboard and a place for debate. At night, the billboard is used as projection screen for showing films and documentaries on privacy issues. Meanwhile the students will carry on with their public action in the city.

At the beginning of last year, the Dutch Foreign Office asked Droog Design to conceive a new and exclusive gift, to be presented by Dutch ambassadors around the globe to a thousand of their most valued relations. Droog Design issued a design competition, and out of a total of sixty entries, a shortlist of ten designs was submitted to an expert jury, consisting of Jan Hoekema, Nikki Gonnissen, Ed Annink, Guus Beumer, and its chairman, the Foreign Office’s secretary-general, Ph. De Heer. The jury came to the unanimous decision to award the design ‘Space to take place’, by Claudia Linders.

Space to Take Place consists of a hundred meter long bench in a public space. The bench will be divided – on paper, by deed of donation – into one thousand pieces, which Dutch ambassadors can then present as a gift. The recipient - who could be living in the Ivory Coast, Ukraine, or Hong Kong – will become the owner by proxy of a piece of public domain in The Netherlands, as well a seat on the bench. Linders’s design is a functional object in public space, albeit with a peculiar state of ownership; it is collective property. The location where the bench will be placed – the IJburg district in Amsterdam – was chosen in joint consultation by the designer, and the Foreign Office, as it offers a representative, contemporary image of The Netherlands – a place to be proud of.