Seeing Orange: Dutch Design at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Mon, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 10  2014

California College of the Arts presents Seeing Orange: Dutch Design at CCA on April 7-10, 2014. The college will host some of the most exciting Dutch designers and thought leaders in the fields of architecture, sustainable design, and graphic design for a series of lectures, workshops, and receptions.

Lectures will be given by Hans Vermeulen and Hedwig Heinsman of DUS architects, Luna Maurer (Moniker Studio), Rene Knip and Michiel Schwarz. 

Monday April 7, 7pm: Hans Vermeulen and Hedwig Heinsman

DUS architects was founded in Amsterdam by Hans Vermeulen, Martine de Wit, and Hedwig Heinsman in 2004. The office builds public architecture: design that consciously influences daily life.

This social significance shows at all levels of DUS’s work, ranging from large urban strategies to outdoor breakfast designs. DUS sees architecture as a craftsmanship and combines research and design with a hands-on approach and unique use of materials. DUS currently works on a variety of projects, from art installation, product design, and event design to architecture, planning, and long-term urban transformation trajectories. By practicing its credo, “DESIGN by DOING,” DUS establishes a dialogue with the community, which results in valuable input for the design process and brings developer, (future) inhabitants, and municipality around  one table.

DUS’s current big urban projects include the design and transformation of 150 communal dwell units in Nieuwegein and supervising the transformation of 2,000 homes in Almere Haven. DUS’s work has been exhibited and published throughout the world. The DUS Gecekondu China Bag Hotel was dubbed “best architecture project of 2009” by the Dutch national newspaper NRC. The Bucky Bar was listed for the esteemed Mies van der Rohe Award 2011.

Tuesday April 8, 7pm: Michiel Schwarz

Michiel Schwarz is a design thinker, cultural innovator, and futurist best known for his “Sustainism” manifesto and, more recently, the Sustainist Design Guide. Connecting social design to sustainable innovation, he looks at how design is embracing a new social and ecological sensibility, as we collectively “design” our built and natural environment.

Schwarz is founding director of Sustainism Lab, a project platform based in Amsterdam. Current projects include collaborations with the social design hub The Beach and the cultural center Pakhuis de Zwijger (both in Amsterdam), and with the School of Design at Ambedkar University Delhi (India).

His cultural manifesto, Sustainism is the New Modernism (DAP/Distributed Art Publishers, 2010), created with Joost Elffers, was followed by Sustainist Design Guide: How sharing, localism, connectedness and proportionality are creating a new agenda for social design (BIS Publishers, 2013) with Diana Krabbendam.

Among his earlier books: The Technological Culture (in Dutch; with Rein Jansma) and Speed: Visions of an Accelerated Age (with Jeremy Millar).

An artist in residence at the Amsterdam School of the Arts, Schwarz holds a PhD from the University of London in the sociology of technology.

Wednesday April 9, 7pm: Luna Maurer

Luna Maurer cofounded Moniker studio with Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters in 2012. Moniker works on commissioned designs as well as projects of an autonomous and experimental nature. The studio works across various media for a wide range of clients in the cultural and commercial sectors.

Maurer, Puckey, and Wouters’s work explores the social effects of technology — how we use it and how it influences our daily lives. Often, they ask the public to take part in the development of their projects.

The results grow like plants, displaying their inner organizational process.

Thursday April 10, 7pm: Rene Knip

Initially René Knip planned to become a painter, but an important teacher, Chris Brand, stimulated his fascination for lettering, calligraphy, and typography. Knip switched to the applied arts, graduating with distinction from the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost in Breda in 1990. In 1992, after three years of intensive training as the assistant designer to Anthon Beeke, Knip founded Atelier René Knip, which focuses on graphic design at the border between flat and three-dimensional works.

In 2012, Knip launched ARKTYPE.NL, featuring 25 architectural type-related projects designed with Janno Hahn. A recipient of several design awards, Knip lectures and teaches all over the world. Since 2005, he has been a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.