Why Dutch Design Is So Good - Part II

It's hard to say that the Dutch are modest about their design sensibilities (excluding Koolhaas) with a lecture title like "Why Dutch Design Is So Good" but Aaron Betsky and Adam Eeuwens, the authors, along with Irma Boom, the book designer, managed to convey some of the organic, non-ego drive in their presentation on their survey on contemporary Dutch design, False Flat at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum last night.

The book focuses on all aspects of design - graphic, architecture, planning, industrial, etc. One major theme ties the Dutch design process to the physicality of the Netherlands - with its grid system and human-constructed environments.

Some generalizations were made about the different between Dutch and American design. In the Netherlands, you have so little space the freedom is in the small, meaning you create options within many confines. In America, you have so many options you pull from everything.

But why, then, is there an incredible homogenization of American design (look at the physicality of their towns and cities) when there is such innovation with Dutch design? What was not expressed at all was the very obvious difference in value systems, the system that drives the way the Dutch get things done and Americans get things done. The physicality of the Dutch landscape seems to be a outcome of their societal priorities about defining a certain standard of living - everyone should have a place to live, even immigrants, a job, and access to public services such as health care. Cars are not a priority. The grid system was a way of ensuring that change in the cities and towns could be quickly understood by everyone. not to facilitate vehicular travel. Dutch exurbs and new villages reflect this societal priority, expressed through their design.

"False Flat" refers to the idea that while bike-riding through the Netherlands, the journey feels flat when really you're biking and up and down over dikes, and in some cases actually ending up at a higher elevation. Dutch design occurs through that very process and was typified by the presentation by Irma Boom, who, with a camera on the podium and no powerpoint slides, illustrated her participaton in producing the book by showing the first Phaidon contract that she rejected, the proposed book size and paper she despised, and how by meandering through other options, arrived at the organization of what is now False Flat.

I can't imagine an American thinking that this type of presentation would be a good idea. I love the Dutch.