Designing the SocialDesigning the Social

Designers, researchers and curators select and (re)interpret pieces from heritage collections and archives in order to tell an assortment of stories about a century of social design.

The exhibition explores the many-sided and sometimes radical interaction between design and society over the past 100 years. Long before the idea of ‘social design’ became popular, professionals, citizens and activists devised design strategies to bring about social change. Based on the work of different researchers, curators and designers, the installation takes the visitor through a series of these striking scenes from social history. The question is always the same: how has design contributed to new worldviews, new forms of living, working and communication, and to a society in which we can all shape our own ideas about the social?

The installation presents themes such as the ‘minimum home’, the socio-economic experiment of the De Ploeg textile mill, and the digital public domain introduced by De Digitale Stad. Case studies draw on the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. Material also comes from the institutional and informal archives of other collections for design and digital culture. Such collections are a source for questioning and reconsideration. They prove that history is always written from a dominant perspective. The Design of the Social thus connects heritage collections and archives, while exploring new perspectives on the past, present and future of the design disciplines.

The spatial design of Designing the Social is by jo taillieu architecten. The graphic design is by Sandra Kassenaar and David Bennewith.

You can download the typeface NEN3225 here. Originally designed by Dutch typographer and graphic designer Jan van Krimpen (1892-1958), it has now been digitised by Dong Bin Han.