The Dutch Design Week 2019 has been opened! At the central square "Ketelhuisplein" the "Biobasecamp" can be found, a pavillion designed by Studio Marco Vermeulen.

In October of each year, Dutch Design Week (DDW) takes place in Eindhoven. The biggest design event in Northern Europe presents work and ideas of more than 2600 designers to more than 350,000 visitors from home and abroad. In more than 110 locations across the city, DDW organizes and facilitates exhibitions, lectures, prize ceremonies, networking events, debates and festivities.

Marco Vermeulen features in the episode "Timber Builders- is the Wooden Revolution Approaching?" of Dutch TV show “Backlight” on Dutch national television on October 20, 2019. Marco andd other architects talk about the solution that large-scale timber construction in the Netherlands can offer for the climate challenge.

The Netherlands faces a paradoxical challenge: building more and emitting less. To solve the housing shortage, more than one million houses must be built in the Netherlands by 2050. But with our current construction method (mainly with concrete), the environmental standards are being exceeded. Can building with wood be the solution? This vision is explored in the "Houtbouwers" episode of VPRO Tegenlicht.

A timelapse of the construction of the biobasecamp can be seen on the website of the Dutch Design Week. You can see how quickly building can be done when CLT is used as building material.

We are on the eve of the transition to a renewable energy system, to shared mobility, to healthy agriculture and to a circular economy. This is the time to calibrate the identity of the Netherlands and determine our course of action. The design exploration “The road to Paris” shows how we can shape the energy transition in the coming decades. It shows an inspiring picture of the future for 2050 that is based on the logic of (energy) systems as well as spatial quality. It shows that this transition offers opportunities to make the Netherlands cleaner and even more beautiful; an inspiring narrative, a "bigger story" that gives direction to the transition to a post-fossil society.

Want to read more? You can download the entire book (in Dutch) by clicking on this link. A hardcopy version is available at The Board of Government Advisors.