As Dutch Design Awards transitions into the future, we look back at how last year’s winners reshape the capacity of the Design field for impact. We bring Studio Carlijn Kingma into focus:

Questioning our financial systems is relevant and topical. The Waterworks of Our Money maps out how our monetary system works, clarifying to a broader audience what economic standpoints may mean for society.

Turning complex theories graspable through metaphors and architectonic illustrations allows access and understanding of the social debates around our monetary system without complex terminology. By doing so, the project sketches possibilities for reform. The project bridges familiar but unapproachable questions, deconstructing how they look regarding political choice.

Carlijn Kingma’s design approach and her collaborations with Thomas Bollen and Martijn van der Linden, economists, scientists and research journalists from Follow the Money make this a powerful project and an referent in design research.

Also check out the project page.