GLUE is a four-day design-tour for Amsterdam designers, architects, brands, showrooms, galleries and academies. During GLUE we will discuss the role of the designer in our city. We’ve invited designers from different backgrounds and disciplines to discuss whether creative makers/designers get enough space in Amsterdam and the metropolitan area. But also, about the responsibility of the designer in co-designing the livable city of the future, for everyone! Who do we design for?

You can attend this event physically or online. When making your reservation, choose between a physical spot or an online reservation.

Maria Blaisse creates her own universe with an inexhaustible language of form in collaboration with, among others, Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake and the Iso Contemporary Dance Company in New York, Spanish shoe brand Camper,Danish textile brand Kvadrat and Dutch research platform Slow Research Lab.
By going back to the origin of things, by breaking down hierarchical structures, and by experimenting with the natural quality of materials, she reveals how unnecessary, polluting processes can be avoided. 40 years of research, invention and play as a designer have shown a fraction of the potential of her work. She has developed a form language through which trans-disciplinary collaborations in dance, music, architecture, science, fashion, design are ready to be shared. Maria is one of the people who got honored this year by GLUE with the ‘Creative Citizen of Honour’ title.

Lyongo Juliana is also a GLUE ‘Creative Citizen of Honour’. Lyongo is an architect and fell in love with Architecture when he was a student in Architectural Engineering at TU/Eindhoven. For Lyongo, architecture is not just about making locations more beautiful and in balance, it is about creating a people’s experience. As the first Architect in Residence (AiR) of 2020 at ARCAM Architecture Centre Amsterdam, he investigated the degree of diversity and inclusiveness of architecture in Amsterdam. Juliana kicked off the two-year activity programme ‘Designing Cities For All’ as our fellow, you can find the programs he co-curated on dezwijger.nl/dcfa.

Mina Abouzahra is a designer and furniture maker specialized in Moroccan crafts. She studied at the Wood and Furniture College in Amsterdam. She worked in Morocco and discovered a world of crafts, colours and traditions. Abouzahra founded her design studio in 2013. Growing up in two worlds–the Netherlands and Morocco—has defined Mina’s approach to her work and is the source of inspiration for her interior style. Mina’s approach to interior and product design is a marriage between cultures, raw materials, dynamic colours, and the modern with the traditional—a unique flavour that defines all things Mina loves and makes

Guillaume Philibert is the creative director of Filling Pieces, the high-end streetwear and footwear brand that he founded in 2009 while studying architecture in Amsterdam. The sneaker brand is inspired by streetwear and can provide luxury sneakers on that basis. “We want to fill the gap between those two worlds, that of streetwear and high-end fashion. And we do that by celebrating diversity. We believe that that is where creativity lies.” Filling Pieces is carried by 350 retailers worldwide in more than 40 countries.

Amanda Pinatih is Design Curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Here she provides the vast design collection with new perspectives. Her experimental working method is characterized by developing other forms of knowledge transfer and explores how historical collections can work participatively and associatively on younger generations. Through exhibitions and projects, she responds to today’s social, political, decolonial, environmental and economic issues.

Xander Slager is the co-founder of New Optimist. A store with an in-house textile atelier, with a new way of creating fashionable clothing in the heart of Amsterdam. Where they design, cut and sew everyday green garments. The mission of New Optimist is to prove that fashion can be circular, social and local. Their nomination for the RetailRookies Award of 2021-2022 suggests that they are well on their way in doing just that.

Maru Asmellash is co-founder of The New Originals and member of the Zeedijk 60-collective. This creative entrepreneur is known for collaborations with museums and cultural organisations like the annual festival SMIB TNO fest, where young creatives meet each other. Besides this, Maru is director of Kazerne Reigersbos, a cultural centre in Amsterdam Zuidoost. An entrepreneur with a great heart for culture, not a wonder you can find him in the list of talents of 2021, compiled by Financieel Dagblad.