VROM (Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning & Environment) (publication)

A screen in a coffeecup, what has that got to do with our physical, living environment? In five years' time the answer will be: all kinds of things. That screen built into a coffeecup represents fluid knowledge and fluid service available always and anywhere. At the Massachuset's Institute of Technology researchers are working on coffeecups and walls functioning as screens. Projection on window screens is in its pre-commercial testing stage. Fluidity is the essence of the Internet, and this can make the Netherlands more beautiful, quieter, and emptier. Unfortunately, not in a simple directly causal relation. The Internet is a freakish confusion of contradictions, from which I am trying to extract some trends. Will Hans van Breukhoven (founder of the Free Record Shop) still be at work in the year 2005 and flowers auctioned in Aalsmeer? There is one thing we need not worry about: cities will not disappear, but will become intelligent and even more urbanised places. The new catchwords: urban fluidity.

Bullinga's earlier futurestudy 'A Ministry of Space & Time' (Ministry VROM, september 1999) revisited.

Bullinga's earlier futurestudy 'A Ministry of Space & Time' (Ministry VROM, september 1999) revisited.>A screen in a coffeecup...

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