The Dutch Design Week is an annual event about Dutch design, hosted in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The event takes place around the second week of October and is a one-week exhibition with many venues.
Due to its industrial character, hosting companies like Philips, Philips Design and DAF, Eindhoven sets itself the goal to become the national industry- and design capital. Also, hosting the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Eindhoven University of Technology, the city produces a profound bases for innovation. In order to communicate these outcomes, the Dutch design week is organized. The joint efforts for this event are bundled in an organization called Design Platform Eindhoven, DPE in short.
The initiative started six years ago as a non-commercial fair. where design, industry and business could talk to each other on 'neutral' ground. Since then, the event grew rapidly each year, up to 50.000 visitors last year.
Whilst the DDW consists of many venues, one of the main venues during the event is the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Technical University of Eindhoven, where successful and well-visited expositions were organized, like the "do not disturb exhibition" in 2004.
Whereas the main goal remains to create a non-commercial event, many conflicts of interest and the rapid growth did contribute to a more commercial approach for 2007.
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