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Design Diorama

At the London Design Biennale Studio Makkink & Bey was invited by Het Nieuwe Instituut to interpret its personal view of utopia, translated as an ever changing archive.

On the invitation of Het Nieuwe Instituut, Studio Makkink & Bey will be representing the Netherlands at the London Design Biennale, with the project “Design Diorama: The Archive as a Utopic Environment”.

Studio Makkink & Bey was inspired by the theme “Utopia by Design”, examining the question of how an archive – which is a historical knowledge system – can also be seen as a utopian world. An investigation of traditional archives such as libraries, cabinets of curiosities, museums, botanical gardens and collections has resulted in their project at the Somerset House.

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Petra van der Ree

The diorama is a three-dimensional blueprint of the Sunday Room of Studio Makkink & Bey’s residential house, executed in blue foam and bringing together various disciplines such as design, architecture and art as well as their own work and that of former studio staff. This approach serves to reveal the designer’s network and it enables Studio Makkink & Bey to supply their personal utopian vision of an archive. Visitors are given the opportunity on location to discover the links between, and underlying stories of objects within the diorama.

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Thijs Wolzak

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Petra van der Ree

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Petra van der Ree

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Petra van der Ree

Studio Makkink & Bey, Design Diorama, Dutch pavilion at the London Design Biennale, 2016. Photo Petra van der Ree

until 27 September 2016
Design Diorama: the Archive as a Utopic Environment
Studio Makkink & Bey
Het Nieuwe Instituut
Dutch Pavilion at the London Design Biennale
Somerset House
Strand, London

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Design Diorama

At the London Design Biennale Studio Makkink & Bey was invited by Het Nieuwe Instituut to interpret its personal view of utopia, translated as an ever changing archive.

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