Factory 5.0 as a Grand Project at Dutch Design Week 2025 — A Living Architecture of Change

Eindhoven, The Netherlands – October 2025

Billboards all over in the city of Eindhoven and Amsterdam.

Video from the Eindhovens Dagblad, Eindhoven’s Daily newspaper. 

Factory 5.0 is an architectural installation by Studio Aditya Mandlik. It was showcased under the Grand Projects category at Dutch Design Week 2025. This marked the first time an Indian architect was featured in this section. The second edition was conceived and exhibited at Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai. It was presented in collaboration with the Dutch Design Foundation and Bureau Binnenstad. The installation reimagines the act of production through the lens of ecological urgency. It also emphasizes non-human collaboration. This proposes new forms of coexistence between architecture, biology, and technology.

Set against the industrial backdrop of Eindhoven’s Piazza Center, the pavilion became a living laboratory—where design, decay, and biology coexisted. The structure was constructed from over 500 digitally fabricated components and 210 Styrofoam panels. Nearly 10,000 kingworms inhabited the structure. These organisms are capable of decomposing plastics. Over the course of the exhibition, this decomposition transformed the pavilion itself. It became an evolving architecture shaped by time. It was also shaped by biology and environmental consciousness.

At its core, Factory 5.0 questions how the built environment will evolve when biological intelligence becomes a co-designer. The installation embodies a shift from human-centered production to ecological collaboration. It proposes a future where architecture is not static but metabolic. Architecture continuously responds to its environment. The project challenges traditional notions of permanence and authorship, inviting decay as an integral part of creation.

The pavilion’s material processes represent a metaphor for a post-anthropocentric future. Biological processes illustrate a future where design emerges through symbiosis rather than control. By integrating living organisms into the act of making, the work redefines production as a regenerative cycle. It positions architecture as a medium of ecological dialogue rather than mere construction.

Through its temporal and transformative nature, Factory 5.0 stands as a statement on the role of design in the age of climate consciousness. It advocates for practices that are adaptive, collaborative, and alive.

Media

Credits:

Event: Dutch Design Week 2025 – Grand Projects

Concept & Design: Studio Aditya Mandlik

Organisers and Sponsors: Bureau Binnenstad, Dutch Design Foundation, Dutch Design Week 2025
Location: Piazza Center, Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Collaborators: Jeet Maity, Ravi Jois, Divyaraj Meshram, Shantanu Sharma, Aditi Deole. Rashmi Bhopi, Marije Van Velthoven, Annemieke Van Velthoven, Suyash Sawant, Satish Vishwakarma, Kritarth Naik.