What we saw at Dutch Design Week 2026.
The Colonic Cleansing Clinic at DDW26.
Every October, Eindhoven becomes a laboratory for new ideas. This year at Strijp-S, two projects stayed longer in our mind: the Microbial Service Desk and Colonic Cleansing Clinic.
Fungi that turn cellulose into ink
At the Microbial Service Desk, we saw fungi turning cellulose into ink. It is a simple idea with big implications: a material is grown not manufactured and the process breaks cellulose and turns it in paper and ink.
Out of Scale and soft shapes installations SHED new light on Colon Health
The Colonic Cleansing Clinic approches health speaces with a wink in the eye, changing scale (you approach a Colon out of scale outdoors) and inside you feel as if you were Gulliver walking inside your Colon, sorrounded by organic shapes; that makes us reflect how important our body is for our health and longevity.
Why it matters for interior design
Our founder Esther rico, teaches biophilic, biomimicry and biomaterias Master’s programme in Interior Design at Universidad de Sevilla. So we look at these projects from two angles: the materials we will use tomorrow, and about the people who will live and work in those spaces.
As a studio that combines interior design and economics, we also ask a third question: how do these ideas become feasible, sustainable and desirable for real clients. Materials that might be waste for some industries have a new life.
Our take away is that biomaterials will be moving from experiment to practice.
By Esther Rico, an interior designer and economist, founder of Esther Rico Design & Business, and lecturer in biophilic design at Universidad de Sevilla.