Sustainable Dutch Design Pavilion

In October 2009 the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), on behalf of the Dutch Government, commissioned Five Spices to design the Holland Lounge for the Business of Design Week (BODW) 2009 in Hong Kong. The guiding values underpinning the conceptualisation of the Dutch Design representation at the event were creativity and sustainability. The design called for the building of a dramatic structure using the Dutch Design Chair as building blocks. The foldable cardboard chairs were used to sit on, to build desks and partitions and as giveaways during the fair. In line with the value of sustainability, Five Spices suggested letting the pavilion ‘dismantle itself’ by giving away the Dutch Design Chairs at the end of the exhibition to reinforce the concept of recycling. In fact, the Dutch Design Chairs themselves communicate both the value of re-using and Dutch Design’s values throughout their lifetime. Around 500 chairs were given to the organisation behind the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture to take place from 4 December 2009 to 27 February 2010. They will be re-used in the Biennale’s main pavilion designed by the Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban.

client: Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)
project: Holland Lounge
location: Hong Kong (2009)