Dutch Design Week 09: Merry-go-round, a museum cloakroom where coats and possessions are suspended from the ceiling on a pulley system, has won the overall prize for the best Dutch design project at the Dutch Design Awards 2009.

The project, by Studio Wieke Somers, was awarded the Golden Eye award for the best project in all award categories at a ceremony in Eindhoven last night, during Dutch Design Week.

Merry-go-round is at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Visitors place their coats on hangers attached to ropes on pulleys, which they hoist into the air and secure with a lock.

Images are courtesy of Studio Wieki Somers.

An exhibition of the shortlisted entries and winners is at Stadhuisplein in Eindhoven until 25 October. Here's some info from the Dutch Design Awards:

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Studio Wieki Somers winner Golden Eye 2009
Best of the best Dutch design in 2009

Eindhoven, 17 October –The 20 Dutch Design Awards were presented to the award winners in Muziekcentrum Frits Philips during a dazzling and festive Award Show attended by an international audience of professionals. The award-giving ceremony of the special prizes, among which the Audi Design Award (Public Award), the Rado Young Designer Award (incentive prize for young talent), the Best Client Award, the Toon van Tuijl Design Prize, and the BNO – Piet Zwart Life Time Achievement Award, took place during the same award ceremony. The international jury awarded the Golden Eye –the
award for the best Dutch design in 2009 – to Studio Wieki Somers. From a design offer of more than 700 participants and 74 finalists, Merry-go-round coat rack proved to be the ‘best of the best’.

“The Merry-go-round coat rack is a spatial ballet for coats, with a colour palette that is determined by the season. Its presence is so strong that one starts
experiencing the museum the moment one enters the space: something as banal as a coat rack has clearly become a work of art itself. By participating, the user becomes part of the design. The engagement of the designer is tangible, the technical and aesthetic execution is excellent; all these qualities together make this the best design of the moment.” During Dutch Design Week, the designs of all finalists and winners will be exhibited from 17 through 25 October in the Brainport Greenhouse on the Stadhuisplein in Eindhoven. After that, the exhibition will travel to several international destinations.