On Sunday 26 September 2010, the Vedute Foundation will present three new spatial manuscripts that will be added to the famous collection: works by Giny Vos, architectural duo Maurer United and designers Rens Muis, Pieter Vos (75B).

The Vedute Foundation was founded in 1991 with the purpose to build up a collection of 3D-manuscripts: a library of three dimensional objects as visualized thoughts that make the concept of space accessible and tangible. Vedute invites artists, designers, architects and others active in different disciplines, to visualise their fascination with space in a work measuring 44 x 32 x 7 cm in closed form. Unlike books, 3D-manuscripts reveal their content as visual statements. Some are directly accessible, others disclose themselves literally step by step; the variety is proving to be endless.

The Vedute collection found a new home in the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. Small presentations from the collection are organised in the studyroom of the library of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, also in Rotterdam with regular seminars on special manuscripts.

Having been hidden away from the general public for some ten years, the collection of 176 spatial manuscripts will also be presented with a new website. Vedute chairperson Alma Ploeger is delighted with the digital access. ‘This unique collection can now be viewed by many more people than previously was the case. All of the works can be opened on the website and viewed from different angles. There are also short films, made specially for the site, in which the makers speak about their work’.

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Launch: location and starting time: Starting time: 14.00. Doors open 13.30. Auditorium Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX, Rotterdam, www.boijmans.nl

On september 15th it was announced, that architect Nicole Maurer and her team at Maurer United submitted the best international entry for the Chicago ‘Chirrette’ Competion 2010 organized by the Women in Architecture Fund. This US fund helps to support women in their efforts to make progress, become professionals, and become leaders in today’s field of Architecture in the United States. The competiton focuses on a solution for a location at Chicago’s waterfront. The project site is an odd shaped, narrow, vertically oriented, peninsula-like lot owned by the City and was part of the City’s proposal for the Olympics. The task was to design a new icon for the Chicago skyline.

Nicole Maurer approached the task as follows: “The Chicago skyline, dominated by statements by male architects needs to be enriched with a female touch. Instead of towers that say ‘Me, Myself and I and I and I..’ the city deserves a building that makes you think ‘O’! The design is reminiscent of an accessory like a ring or a bracelet. It is wonderfully detailed and hosts a residential programme for the rich and famous. A huge ‘catwalk’ functions as a docking pier on the waterfront. This building is a necessity for a city, just like the letter ‘O’ is to Chicago.”

The award of the competion is connected to a fund, that is only awarded in the US. So international entries will only be exhibited and published. Jessica Vitali from New Haven, CT received the price.

On September 13th, the project ‘Fashion & Architecture’ was concluded by a special meeting combined with a last and exclusive view of the exhibition at ARCAM: the Finissage.

Some professional creatives gave an introduction on their fascination for fashion & architecture and talk about their inspiring projects, like architect Arjan van der Bliek (Urban Symbiose), fashion designer Berber Soepboer, Interior designer Claudia van Mastrigt, architect Amer Alhassan, photographer Hermanna Prinsen and Suzanne Oxenaar (director Lloyd Hotel) & Nannet van der Kleijn (creative director Amfi).

The exhibitioners Anouk Vogel (Anouk Vogel landscape architecture), Jeroen Bergsma (2012Architecten), Jan Benthem / Mels Crouwel (Benthem Crouwel Architekten) and Marc Maurer (Maurer United) were also present. Marc Maurer reffered to the ‘Strip Video’ by his partner Nicole Maurer, one of the early approaches to link fashion with architecture in 1998.

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On September 10th a TEDx event took place at the beautiful Parkstad Limburg Theater in Heerlen. Organized by the local SocialBeta Foundation, it was the first truly cross-border TEDx conference for ten cities in three countries in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine.

“The Euregion Meuse-Rhine faces some major challenges in the economic, social and cultural field. Economic transition, a shrinking and ageing population and the ambition of becoming Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018 are but a few of the challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore the Euregion Meuse-Rhine finds itself in an ongoing challenge, as each of the different national regions within the Euregion Meuse-Rhine are in the periphery of their own country. In other words how can the Euregion Meuse-Rhine become an economic and cultural centre? Let’s start by calling it Eutropolis”, explains SocialBeta.

Eutropolis is a concept by Maurer United and represents a vision of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine as a new type of city. If you place the map of the London Underground as a grid over the map of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine it changes our mindset. What you’ll see is an image of a diverse international partly urbanized, partly green area with 3.7 million inhabitants, three nationalities, three languages (with much more dialects) and with many institutions in the field of culture and education. In this regard Eutropolis is a truly European laboratory only on a smaller scale.

With an intersting line-up of speakers focussing on the theme ‘Ideas make borders fade’, TEDxEutropolis was an inspiring succes. The event was opened by Former Minister of European affairs and Member of the Dutch parliament Frans Timmermans.

See Marc Maurer’s presentation, explaining the Eutropolis concept to the audience.

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Digitalflüsterpost is a project by Maurer United for Baltan Laboratories created for the bus trip from Dortmund to Eindhoven in the context of the ISEA2010 Excursion to Eindhoven/Brabant on August 25th. Inspired by the German children’s game Flüsterpost or Stille Post, digitalflüsterpost invites participants on the bus to share anecdotes, memories or small pieces of information or history that they know about Eindhoven or the Brabant region, constructing a communal narrative of this destination based on an amalgamation of stories and impressions. Balloons will be tied to each seat on the bus with cassette tape. 3 balloons on the bus will be free floating and tied to digital voice recorders (the digitalflüsterpost).

Participants will be invited to record a word or a story and pass it to other participants on the bus. These next players in the game can listen to the previous stories and if they wish, they can write down the keywords or phrases from the digital narratives that made the strongest impression, either on the balloons themselves or on specially designed seat covers that are on each seat on the bus.

Originally the term ‘laboratory’ comes from the Latin language: ‘labor’ (work) + ‘torium’ (space). The Future of the workspace is a place
where people ‘play’ to find new ways of making things work better …

BALTAN Laboratories launched its new publication The Future of the Lab, a collection of essays and statements that challenge and debate future strategies and forms of the laboratory (or media lab). Stemming from the international expert meeting The Future of the Lab held in Eindhoven in 2009, the book highlights some of the issues raised during those sessions and continues the conversation, acting as a context for future connections and action. The publication features contributions by Andreas Broeckmann, Eyal Fried, Nik Gaffney, Eva De Groote, Horst Hörtner, the LABtoLAB network, Melinda Rackham, Joost Rekveld, Edward A. Shanken, and others.

The book launch was part of the BALTAN Laboratories international Future of the Lab presentation at the E-CULTURE FAIR 2010. Pictures by twistedstreets.nl

The book is available to order now for the special ISEA2010 price of 8,50 euro (excl. shipping) until August 31. Please send a mail to info[at]baltanlaboratories.org with your order.