The Instructables Restaurant Afrikaanderwijk mixed the borderless global culture of Instructables with very specific local expertise. Examples are the Hindustan Surinam soup called Bravoe prepared by the kitchen staff of an elderly home just down the street, the Turkish Lentil soup prepared by Leen and Hasan, two locals from the Afrikaanderwijk, and the Zagreb Zebra, prepared by Bo of local deli Lekker op Zuid.

But it wasn’t just about food; several small experiments were conducted to see if the Instructables Restaurant can also stimulate local production and create a little income for inhabitants of the Afrikaanderwijk. The idea is to connect local artisans with designers (who could literally be from everywhere) and actually produce some of the designs on Instructables.com and see if there’s a market for them. Jos Kuppens (who designed the beautiful table for the Rotterdam restaurant) worked with students from the Albeda College to see if a small production line could be installed in the restauant in the future. The first signs are promising but also showed some serious challenges. To be continued.

All in all the good energy and fun continued in the second week with several big and small events taking place, people meeting each other across the workshop tables, and an invasion of students and school kids building drawing robots, making aprons, and getting a first impression of DIY 3d printers.

A short overview of the last week in pictures:

7th and 8th graders of Bloemhof visit the restaurant and sampled what in most cases is the first (but not the last) 3d printer in their lives. As a gift Joris van Tubergen labmanager of Protospace, who knows almost everything about 3d printers, presented them with a small 3d printed dwarf to be displayed in the schools trophy chest.

Dennis van Dorem of Monofashion says goodbye in style after teaching lots of young students how to use a sewing machine.

Sils Projects organized a short but wonderful evening showing experimental films by Ute Ströer, Jacqueline Forzelius, Mai Hofstad Gunnes and Alisa Vostiklap.

Arno van Roosmalen presented a forum about the relevance and future of A.I.R’s, (places where artists are invited to work for a specific period of time, and often related to speicific local contexts).

Wouter Roeterink spontaneously organized a small workshop on how to make the pizzabox lamp, now a huge hit on Instructables.com with 10.000 views in just 2 weeks.

And then his equally talented brother Allard Roeterink arrived and entertained everybody with his innovative approach to the Drunken Drawing Robot using wind-up toys instead of the battery powered cellphone motors we were using before. Much better for the environment!

Pim Dumans of Vestia became one of our regulars, and actually managed to repair and bring back to life our large IKEA Lampan Lamp. Thanks Pim!

Students of Wijkschool Zuid, on which we reported before, met with inhouse designer Jos Kuppens to see if they could also work together to produce some Instructables furniture. Or to design some of their own.

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A restaurant is a good place to start if you want to connect people to content. As a matter of fact this is one of the reasons for starting the Instructables Restaurant. In the Afrikaanderwijk the the restaurant now functions as a strongly networked social space, with global content connected to input from diverse local initiatives and people living and working in Rotterdam. To create such a place in such a short time only was possible because of the more than generous support by Vestia housing corporation and people that have been working and living in this area over the last years. Rair was clever to program their exhibition during Art Rotterdam where director Fons Hof generously invited us to speak during the press conference to promote both exhibition and the restaurant.

Here’s an overview of some of the other events and the partners and people involved.

Rair is a cooperation of 5 leading artist’s initiatives in Rotterdam: Duende, foundation B.a.d. Het Wilde Weten, Kaus Australis and Kunst & Complex. They invited the Instructables Restaurant to provide a center and meeting place to their exhibition of 25 artists who visited Rotterdam as artist in residence over the past 10 years. More then 200 people attended the opening and enjoyed the wonderful soups, snacks and sandwiches prepared at the restaurant. Thank you Wijkkeuken, thank you Flavours op Zuid, thank you Stichting Welzijn Surinamers Feijenoord.

Pim Dumans of Vestia and Rinet, chef at Laurens Woonzorg, side by side preparing the delicious Surinam soup Bravoe.

Saturday the guys from Tostitreffer overtook the restaurant and brought their crowd of young creatives to have a Tosti di Pizza orgy and listen to some homegrown Rotterdam punk As the World Burns and singer songwriter Mieke van Veen. Good combo.

The Instructables Restaurant has grown into a breeding ground for entepreneurial instinct. People can make and sell their products, as long as they make the instructions and recipes available. If you make soup as good as Leen & Hasan’s Turkish Lentil Soup, money is sure to find its way into your pocket. They’ve slowly ventured into other business opportunities as well, like Vanilla Sugar Pancakes for the kids and a soup delivery service for people in the neighborhood. It’s safe to say that without them the restaurant wouldn’t be half as good. Creatief Beheer pointed us towards them. Thank you Evelien van der Niet and Rini Bimans!

Kus&Sloop opened 5 temporary but comfortable hotel rooms in the neighborhood in homes that are on the list to be renovated. This way instead of representing empty space they function as engines for urban transformation (I spend a very comfortable night there for only 35 Euro!). For the instructables Restaurant they added a pillow fight instructable and cleverly connected it, and thus us, to the upcoming world championships pillow fighting this April. Can’t wait.

For Pal Maas and De Buurtsuper, Wouter Roeterink added the playful instructable Firelight, made from pizza boxes from Zafer’s Place down the street. Nice! Also thank you Dennis Lohuis of YD+I.

Lex Pott suggested to us to use the oldest trick in the book to create beautiful furniture, the oldest trick being to get a bunch of old chairs and Paint Everything White. Good idea but soooo much work. That’s why we were very happy that Piet and a group of students of the Albeda College helped us  to get the job done. Jos Kuppens will design a chair together with students of the Alberda College and Wijkschool Zuid which will be produced in the school and the Instructables Restaurant. The Wijkschool leaves the traditional idea of a school behind and works with the context in which its students live, connecting them to local businesses, playground, sports clubs, and other institutions for job experience, integration, and as a helpful hand in many of the things that need to be done

On Sunday over 50 people showed up for an artist talk that was organized by the different artist in residencies participating in Rair, with some beautiful work created in Rotterdam over the past 10 years.

Guests start to integrate personal initiatives. Melting marshmellows on a rather big stove (generously lend to us by the Wijkkeuken).

Laurens Woonzorg in Rotterdam Feijenoord is home to many Hindustan Surinam elderly. They are very specific about their food which is why they have their own cooks preparing wonderful dishes for them each day. One of these cooks is Rinet  (left) who added the amazing Surinam soup Bravoe to the menu as well as the unmissable Bara, and prepared both for the opening. Also big thank you to Swami Ramsaran for going shopping with us.

Jos Kuppens designed and executed a table that now functions as the center piece of the restaurant. It combines 4 old tables taken from various second hand shops and connects these using underlayment. After which everything is painted white of course. We named it The Vestia;-)

Over the past years Freehouse, initiated by the artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, has been one of the most important and forward social and economic innovators in Afrikaanderwijk. Through their network we connected to fashion designer Dennis van Dorem (Monofashion) who added a simple to make apron to the Instructables collection (handy for the kitchen) and Pepavana designed a cap for the sunny days that are surely just around the corner. Also a big thank you to Annet van Otterloo.

Monday 80 students of the Willem De Kooning Academy visited the restaurant for a lecture by Arne Hendriks (moi) about the restaurant as a point where the digital and the analogue connect and create new realities.

A restaurant needs something sweet. Luckily Bo of local traiteur Lekker op Zuid knows a thing or two about great cakes. Using just simple ingredients like Petit Beurre, pudding and milk she created the Zagreb Zebra, already one of our favorites.

The instructables Restaurant will also be opened 18, 19 and 20 Feb.

Location Hillelaan 29, Rotterdam, Metrostop Rijnhaven. Open 12 to 6 (so it’s lunch rather then dinner).

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A new Instructables Restaurant will open its doors on thursday Februari 10. And yes we’ll have some more inspriring and warm photos to show you very soon. In the photo we see a small part of the Paint Everything White instructable chairs and connected table.

Everything is a bit different this time since we cooperate very closely with people living, studying, or working in Afrikaanderwijk in Rotterdam and added some of their recipes and instructables. Typical things like the Surinam Soup Bravoe, Turkish Lentil Soup and the Zagreb Zebra. But also the local heroes from Tosti Treffer will participate and hopefully inspire us to make some really nice and original toasted sandwiches. And just because it could never, no way, have been done without them I’d like to thank all the people and partners here for making this ambitious project great.

Vestia Feijenoord, Wijkschool Zuid, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Annet van Otterloo, Pim Dumans, Flavours op Zuid,  Tosti Treffer, Stichting Welzijn Feijenoord, Waag Society, Dennis van Dorem, Freehouse, Pal Maas, YD+I, Wout-R, Pepavana, De Wijkkeuken, Lex Pott & Harm Rensink, De Buurtsuper, Kus & Sloop, Leen & Hasan, Rennette, Creatief Beheer, Lekker op Zuid, Swami Ramsaran, Stichting Welzijn Surinamers Feijenoord, Kus & Sloop, Protospace, Fablab Amsterdam, de Wijkkeuken, Albeda College, Pameijer, Ronan, Sjef Henderickx, Ane Koczorowksi & Art Rotterdam.

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More footage on the Cingel College Instructables Restaurant. This a film they made prior to and during the opening of the restaurant. Check out the timlapse recipe in the middle.

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They did it, and they did it well. Teachers and students of the Cingel College opened the first Instructables ‘School’ Restaurant. The seven recipes sparked loads of comments.

Cappuccino of Mushroom

Fish in Pastry with Spinach Sauce

Chicken Nuggets in Chili Sauce

Prawns Marinated in Pesto with Kataificrust

Salad of Green Peas and Tuna Fish with Lemon & Mint

Meringue Dessert with Apples and Cinnamon

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Cingel College Breda is the first school (in the world!) to open an Instructables Restaurant. Basically what they’ve done is follow the instructable “Make an Instructable Restaurant” and then added lots of twists of their own. Over the past 6 months teachers and students have worked hard creating recipes, posting instructables, doing promotions and preparing dishes for eager food lovers. The restaurant will open during the Breda Night of Culture, a very popular night event drawing huge crowds. I look forward to tasting some of the amazing recipes they created, and reclining on the central heated benches, almost single handed made by the Cingel College’s retired concierge.

In this Dutch article in a local paper it says: ” all our students use social media. We were looking for a way to integrate this into the way we teach. That’s how we came to Instructables” The Instructables Restaurant continues to turn the web into reality.

If you are interested to learn more on the how and why please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

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Het is met zekere trots dat wij kunnen melden dat Het Cingel College in Breda, onderdeel van ROC West Brabant, de eerste onderwijsinstelling in Nederland is die een Instructables Restaurant zal openen, en wel tijdens de Museumnacht op 21 januari 2011. Op initiatief van Pieter van Knippenberg, Robert Mens, Bas van Abel en Arne Hendriks is onderzocht of het mogelijk is de open design denkwijze van Instructables in het algemeen, en het format van het Instructables Restaurant in het bijzonder, toe te passen in het onderwijsprogramma van het ROC in West Brabant. En het lijkt erop dat het gaat lukken. De kracht van het Bredase initiatief is dat men het restaurant niet alleen vanuit de horeca benaderd maar leerlingen en docenten van verschillende afdelingen betrekt bij de ontwikkeling en uitvoering van het restaurant. Over de hele breedte van de opleiding worden lessen ingericht met de bedoeling vanuit het open design denken tot de ontwikkeling van producten te komen. Sommige studenten zijn nu druk doende met het samenstellen van het menu. Andere houden zich bezig met het ontwerpen van lampen, meubulair, aankleding en zelfs muziekinstrumenten.

Uiteindelijk is het de ambitie om deze manier van lesgeven een plek te geven in het onderwijs aan het Cingel College.  Op vrijdag 26 november is men met de eerste lessen begonnen. Alles is HIER en HIER te volgen op de Cingel Instructables Restaurant paginas op Facebook.

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The Instructables Pizza Restaurant was a great succes. We thought it could be but as always the proof of the pudding, eh.. pizza, is in the tasting. After careful discussion with our chef we selected 3 pizzas from the winners. The other winners of the pizza contest, organized by Instructables were maybe a little harder to accomodate in this restaurant, but we’re looking for an opportunity to give them the spotlight they deserve in the near future. The pizzas chosen and made were:

The Rose Garden Pizza by Supersoftdrink with its cute little salami roses looked fresh and tasted like a classic.

The Homemade Pizza Margherita by Skyisblue was a wonderful spicy pizza that inflamed the tastebuds.

Swiss outsider Flammkuchen by T.Rohner was very very tasty with its powerful combination of spring onions, bacon and creme freche.

We hope the feedback our guests and chef gave you will make your pizzas even tastier (if this is at all possible). Thanks to everybody that participated in the Pizza Contest organized by Instructables and congratulations to the winners. The photo (by Eric Wilhelm, CEO of Instructables) shows fresh slices of the Homemade Margherita.

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The Instructables Restaurant will feed some of the greatest thinkers and makers on the planet during the 2010 Picnic Festival, opening this wednesday in Westerpark in Amsterdam. The restaurant will feature the winners of a special pizza contest, organized by the website that inspired it, Instructables.com.

Not only that, Mister Instructables himself, Eric Wilhelm is joining us all the way from San Fransisco to open the restaurant by eating the first pizza. He’ll hopefully share with us some of his thoughts on open design, give his view on the whole crowd source thing, and talk about instructables.com and how it all came about  (and to have Dutch cheese and see Van Gogh paintings).

For Picnic the Instructables Restaurant joins forces with Fablab. We’ll have a wacky double booth full of odd machines, laser stuff, 3d printers, a full blown pizza oven, and FOOD. All instructions & recipes included of course.

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The e-culture fair created a strong context for explaining some of the reasons to develop the Instructables Restaurant. E-culture influences the lives of most people in ways that initially may not seem very electronic.  The expansion of ways of communicating, and developing and sharing information most often will emerge in relatively traditional fields and businesses. The Instructables Restaurant works pretty traditional yet it wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for e-culture, and that includes its love for transparency, its sharing attitude, its DIY mentality,  and yes, the electronic means to support it.

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