Whole world comes together in Leeuwarden for 'future thinking'

International Design Factory Week

Lecturers and researchers from all around the world will gather in Leeuwarden this week to work together on educational innovation. The NHL Stenden atelier Future Design Factory is hosting the International Design Factory Week and will receive network partners from as many as 25 different countries. "The aim is that everyone gets inspired and can go on to innovate."

No Dutch stroopwafels or Fryske dúmkes for coffee, but chocolate from Switzerland, cantuccini from Italy and no-idea-what-but-very-tasty from South Korea. The guests at the Future Design Factory atelier in the Blokhuispoort are responsible for that and bring those delicacies from their home country. 45 international teachers and researchers are travelling to Fryslân for their common passion and mission: to improve the world.

International network

Among the international crowd, hosts Eric Voigt and Amarins Schuilenburg walk around to make sure everything runs smoothly. Both are associated with the NHL Stenden course Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) and are organising this year's International Design Factory Week (IDFW) with the Future Design Factory. They are busy - lunch almost falls by the wayside - but are thoroughly enjoying themselves.

"What brings us together here is future thinking," says Voigt, coordinator of the Future Design Factory atelier. In doing so, NHL Stenden has been part of the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) since 2015. This international network - born from the Aalto University in Helsinki - brings together innovation hubs and research organisations within colleges and universities from all over the world, from five continents.

Design Based Education

The goal of DFGN? To innovate education and make global impact. "By looking at different practical issues in a different way and then creating an effective solution," Voigt explains. That way fits in seamlessly with future thinking and Design Based Education, NHL Stenden's educational concept, which also focuses on education-research-organisations and students work on current real-life issues.

International Design Factory Week

All participants pitch their own project or plan to the network. Innovative teaching methods, a new toolkit for interdisciplinary collaboration: all sorts of things come up. Forthcoming DFGN projects are also defined: how are we going to work together on our future? For instance, Voigt and Schuilenburg and their colleagues will come up with Women of DFGN - an international platform to give women in design a stage so that they can act as role models - and a joint minor in the field of future thinking.

Not just hard work

Inspiring each other is something the participants of the IDFW do in various ways. The programme consists of various components: pitching ideas, discussing and presenting them, developing projects, networking and especially working together. In addition, the event in Leeuwarden is the first with a research conference. Keynote speakers are futurist Tessa Cramer and innovator Eileen Blackmore.
 

After such a long time, it is extra nice to see each other again


But there is not only hard work. There is also time and space during the week to explore the city and its surroundings. The guests from Australia, Colombia, Finland, the United States, Japan and twenty more countries get to know the NHL Stenden complex, the Oldehove, the Stadhouderlijk Hof and, last but not least, the Blokhuispoort itself. Selfies from behind bars will be sent to the home front.

The edition in Leeuwarden is a special one. Postponed in 2020 and 2021. Because of corona, the DFGN network is coming to the Frisian capital two years later. "After such a long time, it is extra nice to see each other again," says Schuilenburg. "The goal is that everyone gets inspired and can continue innovating in education back home." Next time, the network will meet in Ankara. Whether there will also be dúmkes going with them to Turkey then?

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