GLUE Amsterdam 7

Now in its seventh edition, GLUE Amsterdam brings brands, designers and artists together at locations across the city. Amsterdam is a logical setting. The Monitor Creatieve Industrie 2025 identifies the capital as the largest creative cluster in the Netherlands. This year’s theme, Creating a Home, examines the role of design in creating comfort, a sense of belonging and identity.

At Museum ’t Kromhout, beside the water in Amsterdam East, The Village Square brings together eight Netherlands-based interior brands in a series of tiny structures. Their collections appear alongside work by selected designers and artists. Through spatial storytelling, each structure offers a different idea for an interior, built around materials, objects and colour.

From left: Light Leaks by Aglaé Jarry Wilson with The Mosaic Factory, glass wall lights by Kim Zoutewelle. Photos by the author

The Mosaic Factory covers its façade with new colours and formats. Glazed porcelain mosaics in chocolate brown and soft earthy tones appear alongside Luminous Blue, named Colour of the Year 2027 by WGSN and Coloro. Inside, ceramic artist Aglaé Jarry Wilson transforms mosaic tiles into Light Leaks, a series of sculptural lamps.

Elsewhere, bARCflooring and Alphenberg, both exhibiting at The Village Square, combine wood and leather in a single floor. At JEE-O, VeldboomStudios creates the setting for a collection of architectural outdoor showers in bright yellow, pale pink, lilac and orange. Surrounded by flowers, the showers become expressive objects for the garden or terrace.

Recent ArtEZ graduates Peter Barens and Wout van Slagmaat form Label.2×2, using steam-bent wood to make sculptural stools and other seating. Kim Zoutewelle presents wall lights made from hand-worked glass. Suzan Hijink’s porcelain wall pieces transform vegetables into colourful antler-like forms, somewhere between still life and hunting trophy.

From left: lighting presentation by ILLUM/Kunstlicht, porcelain wall pieces by Suzan Hijink and JEE-O installation by VeldboomStudios

Museum ’t Kromhout occupies the East Hall of the historic Kromhout shipyard. Built in 1899, the hall is home to working engines. The iron roof structure, brick floor and heavy machinery form a strong backdrop.

GLUE Amsterdam is open to the public at locations across the city until Saturday 19 September. The newly opened Millen House is among this year’s participating locations. I will cover this design destination separately in IMpressions.

More information: www.glue.amsterdam

All photographs by the author