Fragments of Form and the first edition of Design Biennale Rotterdam

Design Biennale Rotterdam is a new event showcasing local and international designers across cultural institutions and unique venues. Last week I visited the event together with Iris, a dear friend and my partner in crime during Milan design week. She is a great trendwatcher and interior designer, ambassador of the Biophilic Design Academy. And Biophilic – Feng Shui Interior specialist and teacher, currently organising a retreat around this topic. Check out here!

It was good to catch up again for this very first edition of Design Biennale Rotterdam. I was really looking forward to it but it took us some time to get into it, and maybe that even didn’t work out completely. Unfamiliar with most parts of Rotterdam, we decided to visit the Main Locations and then see if there was still time left for the Partner venues. At events I personally always check Instagram to see which location I think is attractive to visit. Unfortunately, the Design Biennale account mainly showed the outside of the buildings and not much of the designers exhibiting.

Despite the fact that the locations on Google Maps were collected by the organization, most of them were still difficult for us to find. Sometimes you had to walk around buildings to enter the next location while we expected some kind of hub. We especially missed signage, a flag or location indication. Maybe it was just us or are these ‘beginner’ things at this new event. Probably we missed a lot and there was more to see but we kind off dropped out changed our plan of visiting the Main venues, and jumped in a taxi to visit partner venue DOEN.

Fragments of Form

“Fragments of Form” was the exhibition by Elle Decoration Netherlands, Monique van der Reijden in collaboration with and at the location of DOEN A beautiful space decorated with selected furniture pieces, decor objects, fragrances and Art.

Sometimes just one great location can make your day and this definitely was the one for us. At the back various seating elements together with the low coffee table formed a sitting area leading us to the stairs and downstairs to a large exhibition area with curved corridors. A calming area with a beautiful colour scheme including the work of painter duo Marie et Bernard who are represented by DOEN. Really worth a visit also after this first Design Biennale Rotterdam of which I am really curious to see more of in the online reports.

Berry Dijkstra Installation

A furniture installation curated by Berry Dijkstra with works by 19 talented designers from the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Together they formed a still life that revolved around form, material, color, composition, and above all a celebration of craftsmanship, exploration, product design and good taste. More in my reels! Check out the designers on Berry’s Instagram

Let’s continue with some images upstairs and the beautiful gallery at the basement. Thank you DOEN for your kind welcome and talk!