Platform voor Architectuur & Design

Eureka! Edmond Hustinx!

A small exhibition about this Maastricht inventor and pioneer in sustainability

30 September till 12 November 2023

At the initiative of the Social Historical Center for Limburg, the Edmond Hustinx Foundation is a guest at Bureau Europa with a partial exhibition about its namesake and founder. The Maastricht soap manufacturer and art patron is known as a passionate inventor with no fewer than 1,116 ideas and patents to his name, including many production methods that reuse waste materials. Hustinx's role as a pioneer in sustainability is highlighted in Eureka! Edmond Hustinx! with archive documents, photos, film and audio documentation and is part of History Month 2023.

Edmond Hustinx (1898-1984) seemed destined for a scientific career, but the First World War thwarted those plans. Cut off from a sales market and raw materials, father Hustinx's Maastricht soap factory got into difficulties; young Edmond gave up his studies to help in the business. This is where his creative brain turned out to be in place; he developed new production methods and devised ways to reuse waste materials. After the Second World War, the factory turned into a laboratory for production methods with the least possible impact on the environment. This method, which Hustinx himself described as 'co-production'; he was praised by the Club of Rome as a pioneer of sustainable industry. A practical application of this method was the heat pump from 1965. Hustinx's constant search brought him into contact with scientists and artists worldwide, and brought internationally progressive ideas to Maastricht.

The partial exhibition in two rooms of Bureau Europa is curated by Joep Vossebeld and based on the archival research of Frank Hovens, SHCL, and the expertise of Joes Minis.

The opening will take place on October 1, 2023 at 2 p.m., with a word of welcome by Floor van Spaendonck (Bureau Europe), Prof. Nico Randeraad (SHCL), Lene ter Haar (Edmond Hustinx Foundation), followed by an introduction about Edmond Hustinx by Leon Minis, contemporary and long-time secretary of the Hustinx Foundation.

A tour will take place on November 5, 2023 at 2 p.m. by Frank Hovens, SHCL, Joes Minis and Joep Vossebeld, Hustinx Foundation. Register via info@bureau-europa.nl.

Credits
Curator Joep Vossebeld | Concept Joes Minis | Archivist Frank Hovers | Project coordinator Remco Beckers | Texts Joep Vossebeld | Editing Lene ter Haar | Advice Joes Minis, Leon Minis & Lene ter Haar

With special thanks for the loans to Stichting Sociaal Historisch Centrum voor Limburg (SHCL) and School of Business en Economics, Maastricht University and for the organisation Stichting Edmond Hustinx.

This presentation was devised in the context of History Month 2023, with the theme Eureka!

Subsidies