As part of an international team Maurer United Architects will collaborate on the regeneration of the Guangdong Float Glass Factory as main venue of this Biennale and as potential creative centre for the future. The team will rely on the existing qualities of the glassfactory, identifying them, highlighting them and dramatizing them. By doing so the team is starting a new practice of social and urban renewal. The design process will take place in two phases. The first, basic design will be done by the local Chinese architecture office O”office. This office has worked both local and international, with a special emphasis on transformation of industrial heritage sites. Apart from architecture, they also have a strong emphasis on urban design and exhibition design.

The larger part of the design will be done by an young, upcoming international team of architects. Twelve architects from all continents will be invited to work on the other design layers. These include the creative interventions to be done in the factory and the more detailed design phases of all the buildings. This process is named the matchmaking process in which the curatorial team matches the twelve architects to with each other and to the specific aspects of the designed project. Maurer United Architects was selected to be one of the twelve involved international offices. In 2009, Maurer United Architects was already been chosen by curator Ou Ning to participate at the Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism, which resulted into the Medular Pavilion project.

Medular Pavilion (2009). from Maurer United. on Vimeo.

On May 10, Showroom MAMA proudly presents its highly anticipated jubilee book: Sweet Sixteen, in which fifteen (now almost sixteen) years of activity is celebrated. Providing insight into the dynamics and approach of MAMA through the years, the book reflects on how a small corner of Rotterdam’s Witte de Withstraat became a defining platform for contemporary visual culture. The book also provides insights into MAMA’s controversial projects and people in the form of interviews, articles, and a wealth of images. The book underlines the importance of the organization, both for the arts and the public.

MAMA is a springboard for young artists, providing new generations of artists and art professionals with their first podium and access to the art world. MAMA has been an early adopter of new and hybrid art forms, operating at the intersection of art and the wider visual culture. Its founder, Boris van Berkum, whose artistic antenna has often been visionary, has always been a great source of inspiration. Berkum: “This new way of thinking, mixing high art with street culture, developing projects in collaboration with artists: it provided for the needs of new generations of creative people and was an expression of the zeitgeist.”

For years, MAMA has been a home to the latest generation of image-makers, artists, and audiences. In 1997, MAMA began offering space to budding artists, performers, designers, and young people from the graffiti and skateboard scene to develop their talents and take their first steps as artists. MAMA became a breeding ground for the emergence of different artists and collectives, and regularly invited its audience to actively participate. In recent years, MAMA has increasingly focused on social projects and the impact of the Internet on visual culture.

Maurer United Architects was an active participant at MAMA from 1998 to 2001.

The building has a high architecture historical value, because of the aesthetic quality of the design and the special relationship between exterior and interior; The design combines modern architecture construction techniques with traditional Limburg building materials .

The renovation aims to better meet the demands of today, especially in terms of Montessori education.

See how every full brick is devided by a dummy joint into two equal halfs. The 3/4 brick at the end of each second row has been turned 180 degrees, to hide its dummy joint and make the pattern work. In other parts of the building alternative brickwork bonds will be applied.

Maurer United and Gay Jongen were already involved in the recently developed masterplan ‘Buitenplaats Veashartelt’, wich comprises seven acres of estate around the former royal hunting hideout of King Willem II. The new – restyled and reorganized – hotel will use energy generated and products grown on the estate itself.

Current director of the institute, Lex ter Braak, has developed a new policy plan and asked Maurer United Architects to convert his vision into an architectural renovation and conversion plan for the academy building – initially designed by pioneering local architect Frits Peutz in 1958.

Marc and Nicole Maurer were offered the chance to set up their own studio at the Van Eyck, which could not be denied. They moved their office into the self-renovated complex with all its facilities – like wood and metal workshop, photo studio and darkroom, animation studio, silkscreen and offset printing.

At March 29th, 2013, many clients and visitors stopped by at the re-opening of the Van Eyck and Maurer United Architects office..

In 1948, the Jan van Eyck Academy was set up as a catholic counterpart of the non-denominational Rijksacademie (State Academy) in Amsterdam, founded in 1870. The institute’s main objectives were to further and expand art education in the broadest sense of the word.

The Maurer United Architects team, 2013!

.. animation studio.

.. metal workshop facilities.

.. wood workshop facilities.

.. photo studio.

.. photo dark room.

.. silkscreen / risography printing facilities.

..offset printing facilities.

The design shows solar cell panels that are exactly positioned towards the south.
Maurer United and Boris (Delta) Tellegen are working together since 15 years now. As pioneers, they have put the idea of ‘cross-over’ (architecture vs graffiti) on the map in 1998. See an example here.