During the 2012 Salone del Mobile, at Studio Zeta, Design Academy Eindhoven presented a selection of fifty projects with "a firm connection to life and a desire to make sense of it." The projects show how, by responding to changing values and patterns of behaviour, design can shape and make new realities that can affect us all. "Design is at its best when it addresses real needs. We are practical intellectuals," says designer and educator Ilse Crawford, who was also the show's curator.

"Complex social, economical and cultural problems call for the creativity of people who dare to think outside the traditional frameworks," the show proposed. "Our designers reflect on small-scale designs and they reflect on larger-scale themes, such as sustainability, well-being, healthcare, quality of life, public spaces and the contexts within."

With diverse typologies, sensibilities and designed objects, projects ranged from Philip Lüschen's Worth Waiting for — which offers ways for patients to overcome the anxiety and annoyance of the hospital waiting room — to Hikaru Imamura's Novel Hospital Toys, designed to help young patients to understand complicated medical exams and procedures.

Outside the hospital walls, Rianne Koens presented Peeling Paradise, a set of kitchen accessories which allow grating and storage of fruit and vegetable peels in an optimum way, advocating their reuse on food and beverages. Dennis Parren, on another hand, presented a more traditional design form: his CMYK suspension lamp projects blue, magenta and yellow reflections on the ceiling.

17 – 22 April 2012
Design Academy Eindhoven
Studio Zeta
via Friuli 26, Milan