Belhuis at the IABR
Belhuis are facilities in The Netherlands mainly used by transnational communities to call home. Following the world time zones, users visit the belhuis according to the most convenient time for them to call. Therefore waves of visitors of different origin are progressively juxtaposed in those interiors, shifting during the day from Far-Eastern to Eastern, to Saharan, to Caribbean. In addition to phone calls they find a mix of several extra services such call centres often provide. These two aspects have turned the belhuis into transcultural collective spaces both at the local and translocal levels.
Besides the impact those social spaces have in their immediate context, the belhuis work from a broader perspective as everyday micro-laboratories where it is possible to explore new spatial models of collective life for the contemporary city in general.
In order to introduce the topic of the belhuis at the IABR we have developed a Rotterdam Belhuis Web Guide, complemented by Multifunctional De-territorializator Leaflets and a Moroccan Cyber Chill Out.
The guide provides practical and other valuable information of the shops presented in texts, photos, and sometimes even live webcam broadcastings. It advertises them as multifunctional places where one can check the Internet, have a hair cut, buy the latest mobile cover, rent a Bollywood movie, send a fax or make photocopies, but also as a place where it is possible to meet different kinds of people. The Rotterdam Belhuis Web Guide as an advertising strategy for those shops transcends physically, in time and also socially, the sphere of the Biennale of Architecture. It is aimed not only to regular biennale visitors and specialists in urbanism but to any potential user in Rotterdam or abroad that can interact with them by visiting them physically or via sms through the web. Wallet size Multifunctional De-territorializator Leaflets
will be distributed all around the city and in the belhuis themselves to advertise the web and the Biennale of Architecture as a whole.

Complementary to the guide and the leaflets there is the Moroccan Cyber Chill Out next to the NAi café. It is equipped with Informative Super Moroccan Cushions and internet wi-fi service. Cushions are made of a patchwork of Moroccan fabrics which make visible the Moroccan cultural diversity reflected in its both traditional and contemporary textile culture. Cushion labels provide information about different realities of the Moroccan Diaspora, about Moroccan belhuis in Rotterdam or the history of Moroccan migration in Europe. The Moroccan Cyber Chill Out works as a stand to advertise the web guide inside the exhibition and like many Moroccan belhuis in the city it functions as a meeting point and as a place to interact with others far away.

For more information please visit: www.belhuisguide.com