Delft University of Technology, t?f and MVRDV together organized an opening event on 15 of October in and around the orange tribune. The event marked the official inauguration of Prof. Maas, opening of the tribune and t?f and launch of its first book 'Visionary Cities'. Event attracted over 500 guests - a full house.

Ronald Plasterk, minister of Education, Culture and Science officially opened t?f and received the first copy of the book. Opening ceremony launched the ‘Future City’ event with speeches, exhibition, video installations, music and drinks.

Prof. Maas held his inaugural speech, addressing the need for a new model for education and research. “I want to address this initiative today by describing the need for fundamental research and argumentation, the why factor, that requires us to keep asking questions until we reach the answer and thus, the next question.[…] Our ultimate mission is to reveal through bigger projects the mechanism of thinking about, and ultimately producing a series of critical alternatives through images.”

Full inaugural address will be downloadable as a pdf soon.

The event featured also ‘My Future City’ speeches. Speakers from many disciplines were invited to state their dreams, definitions or predictions of the future city. A platform to present fantasy and criticism about the future of our cities.

Bas Verkerk (Mayor of Delft), Frank Bijdendijk (Director housing corporation Stadgenoot), Ole Bouman (Director of Nai Rotterdam), Kristin Feireiss (Founder Aedes Architecture Forum), Pirjo Haikola (The Why Factory), Bernard Hufenbach (Head of Strategy and Architecture, ESA/ESTEC), Rob Nijsse (Professor of building technology TU Delft and director ABT), Coen van Oostrom (Founder and CEO of OVG), Henk Ovink (Director Vision Design & Strategy of ministry of Spatial Planning VROM), Michiel Riedijk (Prof. Architectural Design TU Delft and Founder Neutelings Riedijk), Wouter Vanstiphout (Crimson Architectural Historians), Nathalie de Vries, Jacob van Rijs (architect, director and co-founder MVRDV, Ronald Wall (economic geographer and urbanist, Erasmus University/Berlage Institute), Wytze Patijn (Dean of Faculty of Architecture TU Delft)

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