There is a need for more sustainable, local and small-scale industries. Our planet is begging for change. This is why House of Design is working on a new working method, a new system. In this circular system, every link in the chain is equally important, from material via production to use and on to new material. Planet-friendly products that are accessible to everyone. Products that show that things can be done differently. Made with pride and used with pride. Again and again and again.

Our organisation redesigns existing systems and processes, researches solutions, works together with a variety of stakeholders to set up the chain and creates products that serve as an example for change. This makes tangible what local hands can make with local materials. In doing so, we are discovering what a local and planet-friendly manufacturing industry in the Northern Netherlands can look like. We include as many people and parties in the chain as possible. We also work abroad, with different partners in Europe, to learn and to share.
Together we set things in motion.

What are we doing?

Together with policymakers, entrepreneurs, teachers, designers, farmers and consumers, House of Design is discovering how things can be done differently. How can we get things moving with you?

Practical advice trajectories

There are plenty of great ideas. How do you put them into practice? House of Design helps to shape sustainable, circular innovations. Our advice is hands-on and future-oriented. An example of such an advisory process is the Circularity Hub for the Municipality of Groningen. Within this project, we investigated how you can set up a waste transfer station in such a way that as few raw materials as possible are lost and it becomes a circular manufacturing station.

Projects that initiate change

The ball will not roll until you kick it. This is why House of Design is the driving force behind all kinds of projects that trigger change and make it visible. We often take the initiative ourselves; sometimes we are asked for it, for example by the government. A tangible example of such a project is Wad of Value. Within this project we set up two local value chains around local crops to develop biobased, biodegradable and multi-use alternatives for products that polute the Wadden sea region. ‘From plastic soup to veggie soup’.

To be sure all stakeholders in the chain are involved and working on the same goals, we developed the Local Value Chain Model.

>> Please click here to read more on the LOCAL VALUE CHAIN MODEL