Temporary House of Home
3xP: A Speculative Design History. From product and prototype to probe
The design field, and thus also the ambition to use design to optimise industrial products, has been under pressure ever since the 1960s, partly due to rising production in low-wage countries. Towards the end of the 20th century, design became increasingly associated with luxury products. In the Netherlands, avant-garde designers seemed to be mainly reflecting on their own conditions and on the design field in general. The emphasis on functionality and industrial production methods shifted to an emphasis on expression and communication, materialised in prototypes and small series.
In 2013, almost concurrently with the launching of Het Nieuwe Instituut, the focus in the entire design field - architecture, design and digital culture - shifted once again: to research based on speculative questions and a multidisciplinary approach. This resulted in different kinds of products and projects - most recently to the emergence of the 'probe', the successor of the prototype. These developments were in turn reflected in new exhibition formats that gave expression to the changing design ideas.
By reconstructing fragments of several historical exhibitions in the Netherlands - Holland in Vorm (1987) en Do Create (2000) -, the speculative 3xP design history charts the step-by-step changes undergone by the design world. The presentation also shows how design is today increasingly retreating from domestic interiors and even embracing ideas of terra-forming on the planet Mars.
With thanks to: Centraal Museum, Droog, KesselsKramer, Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Bianca Pilet.