About responsibility, materials, and the quiet power of things

Hella Jongerius has been one of the most influential voices in international design for over four decades. Known for her uncompromising and experimental approach to materials, colour, and form, she continually questions the ethical foundations of her field – including her own work. Operating at the intersection of craft and industry, research and intuition, she seeks responsible new ways of practising design. In conversation with Louise Schouwenberg, the Dutch designer talks about morality in design, the quiet power of things, and the ‘slow revolution’ that could fundamentally change our ideas of value and progress. The Vitra Design Museum is dedicating the first major retrospective to the Dutch designer with ‘Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things’, which showcases over 30 years of her experimental work with furniture, textiles, ceramics, prototypes and projects for international companies and institutions.

The world is facing a multitude of crises – wars, environmental destruction, social inequality. What role can design play in this situation?

Hella Jongerius: Design bears part of the responsibility. For a long time, I underestimated the influence of our profession. Today, I believe that many of the answers to the big questions of our time must come from designers – precisely because they were involved in creating many of the problems. Design shapes behaviour. Those who design things also shape worldviews.

You talk about responsibility – can design be moral?
Things are never neutral. They embody morality, power, sometimes even indifference. The traces of their manufacture tell stories about work, resources, and relationships. Design is always sociology, too. It tells us how we live and what we value. We have to learn to listen to these silent narratives.

Your Angry Animals series seems to give voice to these narratives.
Yes – the animals scream. They give a voice to the voiceless, and this can be read as a commentary on the world of design.

What do you think is going wrong?
Market thinking. Value is understood almost exclusively in capitalist terms. But we need to start making moral decisions before we make economic ones. The philosopher Eva von Redecker talks about a ‘slow revolution’ – small communities living alternatives. I believe that design can be part of this movement.

Many young designers today see themselves as researchers. Do you see this as a sign of change?
Absolutely. What is happening today goes far beyond the movements of the 1970s or 1990s. Young designers are breaking with existing systems, working with science, thinking about material cycles and transience. Research is becoming the driving force behind a new design ethic.

But as long as the market dominates, ethical design often remains a niche.
Change never starts at the centre, but in the spaces in-between: where people think differently, imperfectly, changeably, open to afterlife. Designers can create receptivity – for responsibility, for time, for relationships between materials and people. That is perhaps their most important task.

If you could start again today, would you again choose design?
Yes. But I would link it more closely to philosophy, sociology, and politics. We need to understand what is going wrong in order to redesign. That design is no longer a luxury, but a matter of survival. New ways of living, new rituals, new relationships with materials – all of this requires imagination and courage. I want to be part of this slow, profound revolution.

‘Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things’ on view until 6 September 2026 at the Vitra Design Museum. A comprehensive catalogue designed by Dutch graphic designer Joost Grootens, documenting both the exhibition and the Jongerius Archive at the Vitra Design Museum, will accompany the show. It includes a detailed exploration of the Archive as well as essays by renowned authors, including Alice Rawsthorne, Paola Antonelli, Louise Schouwenberg, and Christel Vesters.

Hella Jongerius has created groundbreaking works in many different disciplines, including textiles, ceramics, furniture, lighting, and sculpture and she began collaborating with Vitra in 2004.