As a social design lab, Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde and his team connect people and technology in installations that improve daily life in urban environments, spark the imagination and fight the climate crisis. Clean air, clean water, clean energy, and clean space are their new values, and light is their language.
Internationally acclaimed works include WATERLICHT (a virtual flood showing the power of water), SMOG FREE PROJECT (the world's first outdoor air purifier which turns smog into jewellery), SMART HIGHWAY (roads that charge throughout the day and glow at night), SPACE WASTE LAB (visualising and up-cycling space waste), world's first URBAN SUN (cleans public spaces of the coronavirus) recently SEEING STARS (switching off all the city lights to bring back the stars), the new organic fireworks SPARK, and the world's largest FIREFLY GARDEN in Bali.
Roosegaarde’s mantra 'Schoonheid’ is a Dutch word with two meanings: ‘beauty’, as in creativity, and ‘clean’, as in clean air and clean energy. For Roosegaarde these should be fundamental conditions of daily life.
In his Phaidon monograph, he says: "We first have to imagine a better future and only then can we create it. People won't change because of numbers. But if we can trigger curiosity for a better world, that's how to activate people. I don't believe in utopia, but in protopia; improving the world around us step by step."
Studio Roosegaarde is located in a former glass factory in Rotterdam harbour in the Netherlands, also known as the Dream Factory. This is where innovative concepts are developed into artistic installations. The Studio has vast experience with public space commissions in cities like Rotterdam, Beijing, Paris, Eindhoven and Stockholm. The Studio also initiates research projects for new social innovations in collaboration with universities or partnerships, for example with NASA and BMW. In Dubai, there is a pop-up studio.
Studio Roosegaarde has exhibited at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Design Museum in London, Tate Modern, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Google Zeitgeist and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and is the recipient of international innovation awards such as the Shenzhen Global Design Award.
DreamScapes
The ongoing DreamScapes series is a collection of groundbreaking projects showing the beauty of a sustainable society. A DreamScape is a dream turned into reality to improve the world. The first four DreamScapes are GROW, Urban Sun, Seeing Stars and SPARK. GROW is an homage to the beauty of agriculture, which has reached more than 665 million people. Urban Sun cleans public spaces of the coronavirus and reached more than 850 million people. In Seeing Stars, our UNESCO-partnered project, we bring the stars back to your street by switching off all the city lights. Organic fireworks SPARK is a new sustainable celebration, as an alternative to polluting traditional fireworks. In collaboration with MediaMonks, Roosegaarde produces movies for each DreamScape. The DreamScapes series is open for commissions by governments, entrepreneurs, and others to transform challenges into mesmerising stories and inspiring solutions.
We Are Hiring
Studio Roosegaarde is looking for creative go-getters who want to transform radical ideas into reality. Are you a designer, project manager or upcoming talent that wants to be a part of our new art meets science projects? Apply now with your motivation letter to work@studioroosegaarde.net.
