Ineke Hans is a critical designer of furniture, products, exhibitions and spaces with content. She explores new design strategies and worked for clients, communities and leading international manufacturers on product typologies to fit our future social context.
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London with an MA in Furniture Design, she set up her studio in Arnhem (NL) in 1998. She worked with recycled materials and on efficient use of materials since 1997. Her projects are clear and down to earth, both industrial, as connected to vernacular. Ineke Hans is seen as one of the leading contemporary Dutch designers.
Short to some activities (for all, check full vita)
• In 2015 Ineke moved back to London to start the London Salons, exploring ‘The future of furniture design & the changing position of the designer’. She concluded these salon-conversations with projects and exhibitions in a.o. the V&A Museum and with the pamphlet ‘Explore & Act’.
• In 2017 she became professor Design & Social Context at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with a focus on design impact & climate change.
• In 2021 REX, the first Dutch deposit chair was launched with Circuform. Upto 2023 it won 7 international awards and recognitions for design & sustainability.
• In 2024 Ineke concluded her research project FOOTPRINT 1850 with an exhibition for a broad audience in the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. It compared the social, ecological and economical footprints and impacts of 15 aspects of our daily lives in 1850, 1950, now and 2050.
a.o:
Since 2022: Chair Advisory Board German Design Graduates, Rat für Formgebung Frankfurt
Since 2021: Director of the Institut for Produkt & Prozessgestaltung UdK Berlin
Since 2013: Connected to O-P-A, Design Platform Arnhem (NL) (2013-2015 vice chair of the the board)
Since 2005: part of international design juries, as member or president
2002-2009: Board member Materiaalfonds (NL)
2021-2024 The Netherlands: C-DUTCH (Circular Design Using The Cultural Heritage)
Supported by ArtEZ-Arnhem, the Netherlands Open Air Museum and RIVM (the Netherlands national institute of public health and the environment).
As part of C-DUTCH the Footprint 1850 project compared the social, ecological and economical footprints and impacts of 15 aspects of our daily lives in 1850, 1950, now and 2050. It presented how we used energy & resources (lighting, heating, cooking, water, info-gathering) how we handled products (building, furniture, luxury, repare, waste), and the state of our well being (food, clothes, travel, youth and being young, healthcare & being old). Supported by facts and artefacts: historical (museum) and applied calculations by the RIVM. read more
2024 Berlin/Wolfratshausen: Find your Footprint
Supported by ZEITRAUM furniture and their footprint and material libraries
Designing furniture out of solid wood with an ‘as low as possible’ ecological footprint.
A selection of projects were presented at Designpost during Orgatec 2024, read more
2021-2022 Berlin: Supermarket of the Future
Supported by Philipp Brandts (Supermarket of the Future) and CCC Berlin, Brandenburg
Developing new sustainable products, packaging, concepts and strategies for the supermarket and make those work in daily life, aiming for a high impact. read more
2021-2022 Berlin/Ludwigshafen: One material, one product
Supported by BASF Ludwigshafen.
Designing products or new product typologies made from one material, that are now made of different materials. The project proposals were presented at BASF headquarters and afterwards to BASF clients during their Fabrikstag at Vitra Designmuseum and later at K-messe Dusseldorf. In 2022 two student projects were nominated for the Green Concept Award and Bundespreis Ecodesign and in 2023 another project won the Bundespreis Ecodesign. read more
2015-2017 London Salons: The Future of Furniture Design & the Changing Position of the Designer
Suported by the Creative Industries Foundation Netherlands
Aware of a rapid changing reality for furniture design with changing production, promotion and selling methods, a surplus of furniture in a society where people move to smaller houses and offices and a society on the edge of consuming less and mobility and digitization have effects on how we work and obtain furniture twelve conversations (salons) with stakeholders from the furniture industry took place in studios in east London and accompanied by projects and 3 exhibitions (a.o. in V&A museum). read more
2024: Design Can Dream,
a podcast interview about the power of design and ESG principles with Design Can Copenhagen, hear more
2023: The world of Dutch Design,
an interview and documentary about the state of design on VPRO Dutch National television, see more
2017: EXPLORE & ACT,
a pamflet with 12 statements for action by-and-through-design, concluding 12 London Salons, read more
2017: WAS IST LOoS?
Kunsthalle Wien ISBN 978-3-95679-359-2 Coïnciding the exhibition WAS IST LOoS? exploring the state of design and its potential, find out more
1997, 2003, 2010, 2020: catalogues on design-projects and design-statements, for all publications and interviews check