Do-ism: In conversation with D/DOCK’s Thomas van Leeuwen

This article first appeared in Mix Interiors #229

Words by: Chloé Petersen Snell

It’s quite hard to sum up in a few words just exactly what D/DOCK is – perhaps easiest to describe them rather abstractly, as director and partner Thomas van Leeuwen does. Made up of nine companies (so far) the Amsterdam-based D/DOCK launched in 2004, growing from design practice to what van Leeuwen calls ‘design incubators’ – a network organisation of architects, artists, designers, engineers, anthropologists and strategists focusing on, ultimately, change for good; working towards shared goals based around community and sustainability with a refreshingly honest and bold attitude that’s still reminiscent of a start-up, even two decades later. “We tend to say that we’re building a plane while flying it,” says van Leeuwen. “We don’t have all the answers. Yet.”