2_3_DiscoverBenelux_Issue14_January2015_Scan Magazine 1 26/01/2015 19:18 Page 49

Discover Benelux |  Design & Innovation |  High-flying design pioneers

That is why smart solutions are devised here as a matter of course, from Fokker airplanes to Bugaboo children’s strollers. In a rapidly changing society, designers are the ones literally helping the world forward. The Dutch creative industry is one of the top sectors in which designers play a crucial role, and for a good reason. They are game changers, capable of converting societal issues concerning mobility, sustainability and health into innovative products and services that are both functional and visually attractive, smart and sustainable. Dutch designers are champions of lateral thinking, thinking along and counter-thinking.  They  come  up  with  unexpected  answers to contemporary questions, for example  regarding  the  best  ways  to  move around.  Certainly  in  cities,  mobility  contributes  immensely  to  the  quality  of  life. People consider it a triumph or even a primary  requirement  that  they  can  use  the bicycle to get to work and to take the children to school or day care centres.

The Babboe cargo bike by Spark design & innovation.

dio Bleijh has got off to a flying start. He devised the Sandwichbike, which is a do-ityourself bicycle with a plywood frame. He developed special computer technology to control the machines that make the fifty required components. Along with some assembly  tools  and  a  user  guide,  everyone can build and customise this bicycle. Recently he even launched Van Gogh Sandwichbikes, in five different designs. The  Sandwichbike  'Almond  Blossom'  from  the  Van Gogh series, by Designstudio Bleij.

Superroute-app

The  Sandwichbike  Do-It-Yourself  Box  by  Designstudio Bleij.

Smart Highway Designer  Daan  Roosegaarde  also  drew on Van Gogh, but then for his illuminated bicycle  paths.  The  design  is  based  on Van  Gogh’s  famous  work,  The Starry Night. Bicyclists  can  now  safely  wheel across a modern version of the painting. These innovative bicycle paths are a cultural  spin-off  of  Roosegaarde’s  roads  of the future: the ‘Smart Highway’. Roosegaarde adds glowing lines to illuminate the road, using a type of 'glow-inthe-dark'-paint. This paint absorbs UV light in  the  daytime  and  radiates  the  light  at night. This adds poetic charm as well as safety to the Dutch road infrastructure. 

Cargo bike for families That is why Dutch designers enjoy designing all sorts of innovative bicycles, such as the cargo bike. That is why the Spark design & innovation agency, for example, designed  the  Babboe  cargo  bike  for  multichild families – and even a variant for dogs. This bicycle has quickly become a familiar fixture of the urban environment, and has also become hugely popular internationally. 

Do-it-yourself bicycle And where would a designer think up a doit-yourself bicycle? In Amsterdam of course, where Basten Leijh of industrial design stu-

Portrait of Daan Roosegaarde at his Van Gogh inspired glowing bicycle path

Another smart solution: the intelligent app for your mobile phone called ‘Amsterdam Onderweg’. This app offers users their own ‘Superroute’.  The  app  tells  you,  among other  things,  where  traffic  is  snarled  up, and adapts the user’s route accordingly. As you are advised to follow what is more or less an entirely personal route, road users are guided to their destinations using different roads. As a result, the traffic is distributed more widely across the road network, leading to less congestion.

Association of Dutch Designers In  the  midst  of  this  swirling  and  rapidly changing world, the Association of Dutch Designers (BNO) forms a rock solid base. As the main representative of the design sector in the Netherlands, BNO supports, facilitates, links together and unites thousands of creative professionals. With designers of every shape and form, ranging from  self-employed  designers  to  design agencies in every design discipline under the sun, it is this variety that makes BNO unique worldwide. These front-running designers work closely with their customers, public authorities, scientists and the BNO to keep us all moving ahead. Whether by cargo bike, flying car or intelligent app. www.bno.nl

Issue 14 |  February 2015 |  49