Embassy of Safety

Over the past seven years, Dutch Design Foundation brought together designers, governments, businesses and knowledge institutions through the World Design Embassies programme to shape a more sustainable and socially inclusive future. Each Embassy focused on a specific societal theme – ranging from health and mobility to food and safety – using design as a tool to explore new perspectives and shape meaningful transitions. World Design Embassies provided space for research, experimentation and connection. Take a look below at 6 years of the Embassy of Safety.

Safety is often seen as something managed by authorities, but real safety arises from trust, connection, and collective responsibility. Over the past years, the Embassy of Safety has grown into a platform where designers, security professionals, policymakers, and citizens join forces to explore new ways of shaping a safer society. As part of the World Design Embassies, it offers space for experimentation, imagination, and collaboration—always with the belief that safety must be made together, and made fair.

Highlighting the human side of security

From the beginning, the Embassy focused on bringing the human dimension of safety to the surface. Through initiatives like HEDONE, where former drug dealers and police worked together to create a streetwear label, young people were offered alternative perspectives on success and belonging. These projects challenged assumptions and opened up unexpected pathways towards inclusion and empowerment.

New collaborations and fresh perspectives

In the years that followed, the Embassy explored how surprising partnerships could lead to real change. Designers worked side-by-side with police officers, prosecutors, and social workers, developing projects such as No Place for Sex Trafficking, which raised awareness about hidden exploitation. By bridging different worlds, the Embassy demonstrated that safety is not just a set of rules, but a shared responsibility shaped through dialogue and creativity.

Building trust through making

Trust became an essential theme in the Embassy’s work. With In Makers We Trust, it was shown how empowering makers—designers, artists, citizens—could lay the foundation for a safer and more resilient society. Projects like Ontwapens (developed within Social Design Politie) explored how peaceful interventions and non-violent design strategies could help prevent escalation, showing that safety can be strengthened through empathy, not just enforcement.

Moving from protection to reconciliation

The Embassy gradually expanded its vision beyond protection to embrace healing and reconciliation. Under the theme “Making amends”, it invited participants to explore how justice, forgiveness, and restoration could create deeper, more enduring forms of safety. Visitors were no longer mere observers, but active contributors to conversations about repairing harm and rebuilding trust.

New safety: honest and together

In 2025, it introduces the focus: “New safety. Make it honest. Make it together.” The Embassy calls for an inclusive and transparent approach, ensuring that everyone can take part—whether it’s young people in detention, people with a language barrier, professionals in the safety sector, or ordinary citizens.

Since 2025, the World Design Embassies programme has come to a close. Dutch Design Foundation is building on its legacy with Coalitions: a new platform and structural approach that connects creative thinkers and makers with the momentum of science, organisations and government. Coalitions harness the power of design to address societal challenges and accelerate change towards a more sustainable and inclusive society.