'sunday adventure club' at experimentadesign amsterdam 2008

tools and other building equipment are methodically arranged on a wall of the ‘sunday adventure club’ exhibition image © designboom

designboom is reporting from the first edition of ‘four weeks of freedesigndom’ in amsterdam, which just kicked off. the month-long event sees the two dutch cities of utrecht and amsterdam coming together to host a slough of exhibitions and design events in the heart of holland. ‘four weeks of freedesigndom’ is the larger umbrella in which a number of participating events are listed, including experimentadesign , the international biennale dedicated to design, architecture and creativity which first originated in lisbon and is having its inaugural edition in amsterdam this year. the theme of experimentadesign amsterdam 2008 is ‘space and place’ which looks at the city as a landscape, focusing on the importance that creativity and imagination have on the development of a city. it looks at urban public spaces and how we can enhance them so that residents of a city can come to interact and be involved in contributing to their city’s creativity. experimentadesign includes exhibitions, debates, urban interventions and conferences which are held in emblematic venues across the dutch capital.

one of these events was the opening of the ‘sunday adventure club” which designboom attended. the exhibition celebrates urban pioneers who through their personal passions, have initiated activities and reclaimed public space as their domain. entirely self-organized, the participants share their tools with those who also have a fondness for adventure and play. with many of today’s pioneers taking advantage of online opportunities to associate themselves often with temporary, informal clubs and communities in which they can initiate their urban interventions. the use of new media and the internet has led to the explosion of knowledge sharing, development of a virtual social web and the empowerment of the citizens. it has given the pioneers the opportunity to meet, share ideas and know how, blurring the boundaries between professionals and amateurs. the ‘sunday adventure club’ presents a survey of these next level pioneers at its ‘clubhouse’ where DIY projects, uniforms, interactive stations and tools are presented to visitors to inspire them to create within their own cities. sunday adventure club could not resist the idea of pioneering in amsterdam, and so in conjunction with the clubhouse exhibition, five teams of designers have been invited to start their own clubs in abandoned spaces around amsterdam, converting them from no-man’s land to everyone’s land, summoning the public’s participation and interaction to these areas of the city which are normally neglected.

image © designboom