Design as Politics

The offspring of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke Ordening en Milieu) of the Netherlands and the faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology is the Chair of Design as Politics!

The Chair of Design as Politics will be “exploring, researching and defining the boundaries, commonalities and tensions between the fields of politics and design.”

“The chair understands politics in the widest sense possible: it defines it as that level in society on which conflicting interests of groups of people become visible and are being solved, oftentimes through debate and negotiation, but possibly by exerting power or using physical violence. The political consequently implies succeeding in formulating a description of society in which certain interests are consciously given higher values than others, and the skilled use of a toolset to physically enforce this descriptive approach.”

This is one aspect of the Dutch approach to design and related issues … read more here – http://designaspolitics.wordpress.com/about/

Dutch DFA

The Dutch Design Fashion and Architecture initiative is targeting Germany, India and China – see
http://dutchdfa.com/

The Dutch Design Fashion and Architecture (DutchDFA) programme is intended to strengthen and consolidate the international position of the most prominent sectors of the Dutch creative industries – design, fashion and architecture – through a joined-up approach.

The DutchDFA programme will be “driven by collaboration: between and with Dutch ministries, between and with Dutch professional organisations in the three design sectors, between and with individual designers and with a multitude of partners in focus countries and other countries where parallel programme activities will manifest themselves.

In addition, a set of key characteristics will steer the development of the entire programme: activities will be matching, multi-disciplinary, long-term, enterprising, exploratory and distinguishing in nature.

Dutch Design Workspace in Shanghai

The Dutch Design WorkSpace was launched during the Shanghai International Creative Industry Week (SICIW) in September 2009. Dutch Design Fashion Architecture (DutchDFA) has initiated this three-year support programme, in close collaboration with the Jing’an District, the Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Shanghai Creative Industry Centre, FAR Architecture & Design Centre and local partners.  The Dutch Design WorkSpace will open in Shanghai in July 2010.

Dutch companies working within the fields of design, fashion and architecture will be offered support through this incubator programme. Special assistance will be given to designers who aim to enter the Chinese market: the programme will accompany them in their first steps in this new and challenging environment. The programme will also support Chinese designers who are interested in developing a closer relationship with the Netherlands.

http://www.dutchdesignworkspace.com/