Dutch Design Week 2026 brings 10 standout shows to Eindhoven

Dutch Design Week opens in Eindhoven on October 17 with solar-powered window decals, towering wind turbines, and a shirt designed to fool surveillance cameras among 10 exhibitions highlighted by Dezeen for the nine-day festival.

The 2026 edition runs from October 17 to October 25 at multiple locations across the Dutch city, with programming built around the theme "raw," Dezeen reported. Both established and emerging studios were selected to interrogate unpolished, authentic design work.

What will the Design Academy graduation show reveal?

Design Academy Eindhoven hosts its annual graduation show, the school's traditional proving ground. Past alumni include Sabine Marcelis, Formafantasma, Hella Jongerius, and Philippe Malouin. The 2026 cohort exhibits at Microstad, Professor Doctor, Dorgelolaan 2.

Which projects tackle energy and the environment?

• Between Lights by Teresa van Dongen at Klokgebouw (Klokgebouw 50). The Dutch designer launches a transparent solar-powered night light designed as a window decal. Van Dongen's prior work experimented with bioluminescent lighting powered by bacteria sourced from octopi and World War Two bomb craters.
• Field by Isabel + Helen at Stadhuisplein (City Hall Square). The duo installs a family of towering wind turbines that visitors can physically move and turn toward the wind.
• Local Linoleum by Christien Meindertsma at Klokgebouw. The show traces the murky industrial origins of everyday materials.

What is Echo's 01 Alu Edition?

Fourteen designers in the Echo group show have transformed aluminum offcuts from the production of street lighting poles and extrusion profiles into new products. The results display in the newly opened Building TX at Achtsteweg Zuid 187.

How does Gijs Schalkx challenge fossil fuel dependence?

Dutch designer Gijs Schalkx presents Onderweg naar een toekomst ("On the way to a future"), also at Building TX. The exhibition features a car that runs on waste plastic and a motorbike powered by swamp gas, among other dystopian designs.

What is the Digital Camouflage shirt?

Berlin-based Simon Weckert brings his Digital Camouflage project to Sectie-C Punt-C Industriële hotspot (Daalakkersweg 10-16, Hal 10), a shirt designed to scramble the facial-recognition system of surveillance cameras. The piece ranks as one of Dezeen's most-read projects of recent months. Fourteen other international designers exhibit alongside.

What is Table of Power?

Eindhoven collective Show Not Show recreates a high-powered boardroom inside studio complex de Kruisruimte (Generaal Bothastraat 7-E) for its third edition. Returning members Frank Penders and Lucas Zito join guest exhibitors Aleksandra Adamchyk, Kilian Vos, and Pablo Octavio.

What is Teun Zwets showing?

Zwets unveils 50 new chair designs at his Hallenweg 11a workshop, stepping away from his trademark splintered-wood aesthetic. Each chair uses materials and methodologies he has not previously employed. The 2026 show follows last year's mobile exhibition staged from a car trailer and a 2024 installation arranged as a mock home.

How large is Forward Furniture?

Curated by Design Biennale Rotterdam co-founder Liv Vaisberg, Forward Furniture returns to Building TX with nearly 100 designers presenting three pieces each. The exhibition design rests on carpets that soften the former factory setting.

The festival's "raw" theme and an unusually broad roster — alumni heavyweights alongside a 100-designer collectible showcase — point to a program interrogating production chains as much as celebrating finished objects, ranging from aluminum offcuts and linoleum to garments built to evade AI.