Top five Design Academy Eindhoven graduation projects

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Daniel Costa


Our pick of the top five graduation projects from the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven this year ranges from furniture inspired by sweets to thoughtful cat baskets and furry concrete surfaces.

Matthias Borowski

Matthias Borowski

Matthias Borowski looked at the material possibilities of food for his project, The Importance of the Obvious. The appealing textures, surfaces and colours of candy - from bobbled pink coatings to layered jellies - inspire a new breed of fun and delicious-looking furniture.

For more on the colours and surfaces of food as a design direction, Homebuildlife subscribers can see our report, Luminous Pastels.

Daniel Costa


Daniel Costa
Daniel Costa showed Prologue to the Grounded Joys, a rug landscape that provides different terrains and textures to be enjoyed barefoot. Different components, such as stone, tufted fabric and beading, are spliced together to create an experience that celebrates "our desire to touch."

Regina Mol


Regina Mol
The Travelling Cat by Regina Mol aims to solve the problem of getting a suspicious cat into a travel basket. Mol's bags double up as sleeping bags, so that the cat can embed its own smell into them and get used to using them. Following research into what kinds of environments cats prefer, the bags are designed using natural, tactile materials and have plenty of portholes to look out of.

Hozan Zangana


Hozan Zangana
Hozan Zangana
Hozan Zangana's Shaping From Intuition is a collection of objects designed for spices, which draw inspiration from both the designer's Iraqi heritage and his present-day Dutch habits. The wooden spice containers have patterned lids that shape their contents, inspired by the markets of Baghdad; these lids also show when supplies need to be replaced, sinking lower into the containers as they empty.

A flat-based mortar and pestle puts spices on display as they are ground, and provides the user with a pestle that fits satisfyingly into the palm of their hand.

Jolijn Pasmans


Jolijn Pasmans
Soft Concrete by Jolijn Pasmans offers a surface solution that needs no further decoration. By adding coloured fibre, cloth and silicone to concrete before it sets, Pasmans has replaced carpeting with hairy concrete, and upholstery with silicone-embedded hard surfaces.

Homebuildlife subscribers will be able to see our edit of the top twenty projects, plus our full report from Dutch Design Week, next week.