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Parabolic Intersects by Zelt studio at Katoenhuis. Photography by Michèle Margot.
The soccer game between AC Milan and Rotterdam’s Feyenoord on February 18, 2025, provided an interesting allegory of two cities’ statuses as European design capitals. The match—ending with a 1-1 tie—took place the night before the unveiling of the inaugural Design Biennale Rotterdam, which continues its programing through March 2, 2025. Unlike Milan’s long-established design gallery scene and the annual Salone, Northern Europe’s design and architectural capital has yet to claim its spot on the international design calendar. Co-organized by Liv Vaisberg and Sarah Schulten, the biennial taps into this need to unite the local network of designers, makers, architects, scholars, and design aficionados while introducing the city’s offerings to a global audience.
Rotterdam is not shy about its knack for design. Its soaring glass and steel-forward buildings are a reflection of a revamped harbor city, once torn by World War II and now home to countless studios, agencies, and manufacturers. Despite heavy-lifters like OMA and MVRDV as well as cutting-edge institutions like Niewu Instituut, the metropole’s influence on the international sector has been rather quiet. “Rotterdam is a city where designers work and produce but don’t show a lot,” Vaisberg tells Interior Design. She notes that interest among design graduates from Eindhoven is relatively new. Schulten underlines the city’s rich foundation: “What we have witnessed during the build up of the biennale is that there is incredible energy and knowledge in Rotterdam which I think comes from a mentality of not just talking, but doing.”
Design Biennale Rotteradam opening night. Photography by Michele Margot.
The biennial’s more than two-hundred participants, hailing from all over Europe, materialize the founders’ sentiments on the city’s no-frills tradition. Six venues, which include an office building, a former electricity station, and a tannery-turned-coworking space, host exhibitions put together under various themes. Organizers paid attention to inaugurating the biennial with a “less pretentious” approach, according to Schulten, in celebrating design in all forms. “Rem Koolhaas said once that Rotterdam is the least pretentious city, and we wanted to keep this energy,” she added.
The show’s overarching theme: “What’s real is unfamiliar” carves room for experimentation and open-ended juxtapositions of the moment in local production. The expression is based on a poem from the local poet Rien Vroegindeweij. “For us, it means not to be afraid of the unknown and to acknowledge that to be able to live in the future, we have to adapt to new ways of living and new traditions, and designers are used to this,” says Schulten. This is Us, set up at the early post-World War II building Groot Handelsgebouw, focuses on Rotterdam-based designers, while the nearby office building W70 features various thematic groupings, including those on ornamentation and plastic. The former factory Katoenhuis hosts large scale projects that examine technology’s relationship with design.
Must-See Moments From Design Biennale Rotterdam 2025
Cairn by Laurids Gallée
Cairn by Laurids Gallée. Photography by Pierre Castignola.
Resin is among Rotterdam’s prides, with the local designers’ pioneering use of the material, such as Vincent van Rijck in 1990s. Laurids Gallée’s solo presentation of new light fixtures at a storefront space near the city’s bustling main train station captivates the passersby with resin’s disarming visual richness. Each titled Cairn, the Austrian-born local designer’s floor and ceiling fixtures radiate in fluorescent shades of orange and pink, occupying a romantically-set interior with their somewhat futuristic auras and alluringly sleek forms.
This is Us
Audrey Large and Theophile Blandet’s collaboration in This is Us. Photography by Osman Can Yerebakan.
At another nearby storefront, the biennial salutes local talent with This is Us, a show exclusively dedicated to Rotterdam-based studios, with a title borrowed from the slogan of Feyenoord team. The participants’ diverse backgrounds are reflected in the equally vibrant material palettes and visual statements, which range from demure touches to maximalist takes on aesthetic and function. Take, for example, Audrey Large and Theophile Blandet’s collaboration of an aluminum-coated resin 3D-printed chandelier. The dark green-colored morphic form hovers above a wool tapestry o glitched imagery by Jonas Hejduk. Russo Betak’s enigmatic lamps, titled Pelikan, have curved necks and bulbous shades, made out of none other than shelves of oysters, mussels, and scallops.
JUPITER4 by Gert Wessels
Gert Wessel’s JUPITER4 at W70. Photography by Osman Can Yerebakan.
Gert Wessel’s oozing fiberglass JUPITER4 bookshelf is hung at the entrance of a large floor of adjacent office spaces at W70. The Utrecht-based designer’s embodiment of fluidity on a glazed firm surface contrasts the predictability of a corporate interior. Welcoming the visitors to the rigidly corporate interior, the fluid form is at once humorous and innovative while suggesting a tongue-in-cheek approach to function.
Millebolle by Indefinito
Indefinito’s Millebolle couch at W70. Photography by Osman Can Yerebakan.
At the entrance to the offices, the Italian studio Indefinito exhibits Millebolle, a modular sofa solution with multiple configuration options that lends itself to equally variant social interactions. Made out of large bouncy 3D-knit balls, the couch is a playful take on furniture’s potential in disrupting social rituals, especially within the firm designation of an office space, here with the views of the Rotterdam skyline on the back.
Artemis Mitsiou’s Ceramic Vessels
Artemis Mitsiou’s ceramic vessels at W70. Photography by Osman Can Yerebakan.
Artemis Mitsiou’s ceramic vessels occupy a former phone booth, filling the small nook with a breeze of Mediterranean craft. The forms over a minimalist wooden table allude to clay which the designer hauled from a river bank in her hometown in Greece to sculpt their ultimate forms in Rotterdam where she is currently based. The earth material speaks to the local tradition of giving each Greek who prepares to leave their homeland a piece of clay to transport as a piece of memory of the motherland.
Lisa Konno and Laura Maksa’s Office Room
Lisa Konno and Laura Maksa’s office room at W70.
An office room houses an inspiring pairing of fashion and furniture through Lisa Konno and Laura Maksa, two Netherlands-based designers whose different design practices yield a texturally-rich and visually-attractive juxtaposition. Konno, who works in fashion and textiles, exhibits sculpturally-tailored dresses accentuated with porcelain bits, presented not unlike Maksa’s tubular chrome frame seats with polypropylene rope details. All in bright shades, the furniture pieces and the garments orchestrate an unexpected encounter of design through different paths.
Parabolic Intersects by Zelt Studio
Parabolic Intersects by Zelt studio at Katoenhuis. Photography by Michèle Margot.
At Katoenhuis, where the 26-foot high ceiling allows for spatial experimentation, Zelt Studio, an Amsterdam-based design practice founded by Johannes Offerhaus, occupies a large room with a portion of their immersive Parabolic Intersects project. Originally commissioned by the Dutch music festival Down the Rabbit Hole last summer, the all-encompassing installation of textile dressed over an elongated wooden structure conveys movement and transformation. Here, Offerhaus, who is also a sailor, cuts a slice of the original outdoor installation and reinterprets it indoors to echo the festival’s breezy spirit. A film projection details the installation’s conception and installation process, while wall sketches and a maquette further materialize the vision.