This Week Utrecht Hosts 3D Hubs Event at Permanent Future Lab

Last week 3D Hubs hosted many workshops and meet-ups all over the world, from Dallas to Amsterdam, indicating the company’s vast international reach and the variety of events it sponsors through its hubs. This week the events schedule is much more relaxed, as people’s schedules begin to shift from summer to autumn.

Considering the city of Utrecht has a population of around 331,000, and 3D Hubs Utrecht boasts 92 3D printers, this means that there’s a 3D printer hub in Utrecht for every 3,598 people! That’s a pretty impressive ratio! And Utrecht is the home to a very exciting new “Permanent Future Lab” movement that is hosting a 3D Hubs meetup this coming week. So, it may be a quiet week for international 3D Hubs events, but it will not be quiet in Utrecht!

3D Hubs Meetup| Utrecht, the Netherlands

This week, Community Mayor KCT invites you to attend Utrecht 3D Hubs’ third meetup, which will be on September 1, 2015 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. The meetup will take place at the first Permanent Future Lab, where Jurjen de Vries will discuss his work there. Yes, that’s right, Utrecht is home to the first Permament Future Lab, which is a decentralized movement committed to limiting the gap between technology and society by providing publicly accessible space with access to open source technology through sharing.

The Permanent Future Lab wiki page describes the mission behind the project in a rapidly changing world driven by technology:

“Like most new-to-the market products, new technology does not necessarily match with the needs of current society. The end-user need to be familiar with, like or adopt it. However, different than most new-to-the market products, technology can influence society on a different level and scale with disruptive consequences, especially if it is connected to the digital world. The movement stimulates the society to learn, think and/or do something with these new developments. By sharing knowledge online with others, co-creating and developing new, better ideas for example.”

If you are familiar with the mission behind open source technology, then you’ll recognize Permanent Future Lab’s philosophy too. The core values of the Permanent Future Lab movement are: society driven (emphasizing communication, mutual understanding, and bridging the gap between machines
and life); innovation; and openness (based in shared information and technology).

The doors of the Permanent Future Lab were opened on October 15, 2014, and the project’s list of available technology is extensive. A recent Twitter post also recently stated that the Lab is up for a Gigabot in the 2015 Great Giveaway and you can see the video they submitted to the competition here.

In addition to a presentation about Permanent Future Lab, Alf from 3D Hubs plans to also include some “new cool wannahaves for 3D printers” and discuss plans for upcoming months.

For more information, you can check the 3D Hubs Utrecht Event page here. If you attend, let us know how it goes! Have you attended a local 3D Hubs event? Let us know your thoughts in the 3D Hubs Utrecht Event forum thread over at 3DPB.com.