Eindhoven gives the green light to a future lab for design and technology

It will become a platform for all local actors willing to debate on issues of the future

Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, has approved an annual subsidy of half a million euros for a future lab for design and technology - informed its authorities earlier this month. The money will go to the Next Nature Network (NNN) for the period 2021-2024, responding to a long-standing need for a place where a wider audience can see and experience the connections between design and technology.

Eindhoven will go forward to nature

Next Nature Network is an Amsterdam-based network with members in 44 countries, which promotes a debate on various aspects of the future and explores nature from a new perspective. The questions they pose to themselves range from the possibility to grow meat without slaughtering animals, integrating robots in the workplace, whether men can have babies, to paying people for allowing trees to live and the morality of all of these questions.

They also explore the life of technology – from a human-driven invention to becoming autonomous and starting a life of its own. Their team includes an astronaut, a professor of experimental architecture and a TV host, among others. The lab of the future, which is set to open in Eindhoven in 2021, promises to become a true outlet for this creative energy.

Alderman Monique List, responsible for Culture and Design in the municipality of Eindhoven, commented on the occasion: “The Next Nature Futurelab will be a place where everyone is welcome to experience how technology and design shape the future. It is an important contribution to the level of facilities in our city.

I am pleased that a good connection has been established with the Eindhoven design and culture sector as well as with education and technology. By collaborating on content, they can only reinforce each other. In this way, the futurelab can develop into a nationally and internationally appealing institute, certainly with the support of the government.”

The local support comes in addition to central and regional funding. Earlier, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science announced that they will set aside 500 000 euros annually for the period 2021-2024 towards the establishment of this facility in Eindhoven.

The government's contribution follows a motion that was almost unanimously adopted by the Lower House of the Parliament in July asking for such support, as part of the national cultural policy. The province of Noord-Brabant announced they will also contribute 250 000 euros per year to this endeavour.

This significant financial support serves to prove that Eindhoven, just like NNN is decided “to go forward – not back – to nature”. We are about to find out how far this will go.