Reshaping public spaces

Laurens Kolks' work focusses on spatial design projects that explore possibilities for reshaping public spaces. Important points of departure are his his love-hate relationship with the Dutch compulsion for planning and the manufacturability of spatial experiences: design as a means of changing the perception of one's environment.

Laurens considers himself a topophil, where topophilia is understood as the love of places and their particularities. Therefore, his work consists primarily of unique, site-specific designs and installations with a temporary or permanent character. The scale of the designs ranges from furniture and set designs to complete interiors and buildings.

Laurens obtained a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design at Design Academy Eindhoven (1999), and a master's degree in Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam (2018, cum laude). He has been a tutor at St. Joost School of Art & Design since 2008.

Laurens is a PhD researcher at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research investigates how particular design practices – through the design of objects, environments, systems and services – partake in the entanglement of the social and the material to articulate public issues. Regarding the involvement of design practices with public and moral issues, his research intends to gain insight into how various design approaches contribute to the engagement of publics with collective concerns.