Brussels is hosting the first Human Cities urban festival. This biannual event will be a showcase for raising awareness of public spaces in Brussels through various meetings and events. The festival kicked off on 6 May 2010 with a PECHA KUCHA happening session. A symposium and scientific workshops will welcome numerous Belgian and international experts, professionals and students in urban planning, architecture, design and sociology, as well as key figures from public service. They will share their experiences, work and thoughts on urban planning, and its general uses, focusing particularly public spaces.

The festival was guarded by the Brussels Independence Army in case Belgium ceases to exist.

Human Cities: Places to Be
http://www.humancities.eu/

Pecha Kucha BRussels
http://pechakucha.architempo.net/brussels/

                   

Click here to download:

Human_Cities_Festival_launched.zip (1676 KB)

fusionbureau is a creative agency in Tokyo and Brussels 
http://www.fusionbureau.com (website) 
http://blog.fusionbureau.com (blog) 
tokyo@fusionbureau.com 
brussels@fusionbureau.com 

*European Studio:* 
Centre Dansaert 
Rue d'Alost 7-11 
1000 Brussels, Belgium 
TEL: int +32 (0)2 213.38.72 
FAX: int +32 (0)2 213.37.86 

*Japan Head Office / Studio:* 
5-10-10 3F Minami Aoyama 
Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 107-0062, Japan 
TEL: int +81 3 3407 7873 
FAX: int +81 3 3407 7873

One of our clients, Marieke Pauwels, has recently been honoured with the 12th Westerwald Prize of Europe in the category installation/sculpture.* From coming April 2010 she will be featured in an exhibition in Brussels focusing on the Fuping 11, a collaboration between Belgium and China. A cultural exploration of cultural contradictions between Europe and Asia.

Fuping is a city in China, near Xi’an, known among other things for its famous terracotta army. The region has been breathing ceramics of all kinds for many centuries: tiles and building bricks, roof tiles and barrels, pots and statues. A few years ago, Fuping opened its world-renowned ceramics museum, the FLICAM (FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum), led by Dr I Chi Hsu. Various ceramicists from all over the world have been invited to create new work on-site that will later become part of the museum’s art collection. During the summer of 2008, eleven Belgian ceramicists travelled to China for six weeks. For one month, they worked in the Fuping Pottery Art Village. The works created there found a new, permanent home in the FLICAM’s brand-new Belgian pavilion.

The Fuping Eleven, Ceramic Unica once more brings together nine of the eleven ceramicists. Each designer was asked to design two rare objects which reflect their experience with the Chinese culture and whose forms express contradictions in principles or concepts.

2 APRIL – 22 MAY 2010
DESIGN FLANDERS GALLERY
Kanselarijstraat 19, B-1000 BRUSSELS (near Sint-Michiels Cathedral)
Opening times: Tuesdays - Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays & Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on Mondays and public holidays (4 April and 1, 13 & 23 May 2010).
 
Marieke Pauwels
http://www.mariekepauwels.be/

Exhibition Details
http://www.designvlaanderen.be/en/news/fuping-11.html

Westerwald Price
http://www.keramik-europas.de/en/2008/12/16/hello-world/

fusionbureau is a creative agency in Tokyo
http://www.fusionbureau.com (website)
http://blog.fusionbureau.com (blog)
tokyo@fusionbureau.com (email) +81(0)3.3407.7873 (tel/fax)

Recently many new shops have opened between Koto Dori and Omotesando Station. One of the more interesting ones combines Japanese tradition with a modern ascetic style. Jukka sells rice crackers but presents it as designer jewelry, on a pedestal, under glass. The exquisite tea companions come in various shapes and ingredients. The shop offers free tasting if you would happen to pass by.

Jukka Aoyama
http://jukka.toyosu.co.jp

       

Click here to download:

designer_sembe_aoyama.zip (547 KB)

fusionbureau is a multi-disciplinary creative agency in Tokyo 

http://www.fusionbureau.com (website) 
http://blog.fusionbureau.com (blog) 
tokyo@fusionbureau.com (email) 
+81(0)3.3407.7873 (tel/fax)

After a period of three and a half years the Nezu Museum has finally reopened its doors.

The modern minimalist approach by architect Kengo Kuma gives breathing space to a collection of traditional art, including scrolls, screens, ceramics, English clocks, bronze sculptures, Japenese court calligraphy and buddha statues. The focus is on Japanese tea ceremony and Chinese influences.

And visitors will find refuge in the moss covered garden, dotted with tea houses, stone bridges and waterfalls. A welcome oasis in the otherwise crowded Omotesando shopping street area.

As part of the branding exercise the old name 'the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts' was changed into the more minimal 'Nezu Museum' and the new logo with the letters N and M was set in bamboo by the German design agency Peter Schmidt.

Nezu Museum website
http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/about/index.html

About the museum:
The industrialist and president of Tobu Railway, NEZU Kaichiro, Sr.(1860-1940) established a foundation in his will to preserve his personal collection. The museum opened at his private residence on this Aoyama site the following year,in 1941. Set in the spacious traditional-style garden with pond are several tea houses (chashitsu) because Kaichiro was an enthusiastic practitioner of 'the way of tea.'The Nezu Museum is considered especially strong in arts related to 'tea.'

                           

Click here to download:

Nezu_Museum_reopens_in_Aoyama.zip (2882 KB)

fusionbureau is a multi-disciplinary design studio in Tokyo
http://www.fusionbureau.com (website)
http://blog.fusionbureau.com (blog)
tokyo@fusionbureau.com (email)
+81(0)3.3407.7873 (tel/fax)