About MaterialDistrict
Materials only change something once we apply them.
MaterialDistrict connects the professionals who develop sustainable materials with the professionals who decide where and how they are applied. Our mission is simple: accelerate the application of sustainable materials and products in the project-based construction and interiors market.
The question is less and less whether alternatives exist.
For years MaterialDistrict has made new materials, designers and producers visible. That curiosity remains. But the market has changed. The question is increasingly how we get them reliably, affordably and at scale into projects. That is why the focus shifts with it: from innovation as an endpoint to application as the goal.
Two entrepreneurs, one next step.
The relevant story for the market is not that two companies did a transaction, but that two entrepreneurs with a shared view on sustainability create a stronger base for the next phase of MaterialDistrict.
MaterialDistrict · Owner & director
Jeroen van Oostveen
Took over MaterialDistrict in 2008 as a simple materials library without a business model, and built it into a platform with an annual event, an online materials database and international exhibitions. His conviction: material choice is decisive for better design and more sustainable projects.
- Co-founder of Architectenweb.nl (1998) and Archello.com (2009)
- Set up the Young Talent programme and the Innovation Fund
- Founder of Sample.Store and DesignerBooks.store, owner of Megosu
- Board member of the NVBO, the association of Dutch exhibition organisers
Next Venue · Director & owner
Timo Kruft
Built Next Venue into an organisation that operates monumental, industrial and pop-up venues. Self-made entrepreneur in the events, catering and hospitality sector, with sustainability, reuse and social value ever more prominent in the business.
- Next Venue facilitates around 1,500 events a year, for 10 to 5,000 people
- Operates among others the Midden Nederland Hallen in Barneveld
- Develops new event venues and concepts
- Expands Next Venue by giving existing venues a new lease of life
- Participated in the revitalisation of the De Wagenwerkplaats rail complex in Amersfoort
Contactgegevens staan op de contactpagina.
What it comes down to
Nowhere else do you see such a broad combination of companies, startups, designers, researchers and students together.
Here they meet, exchange knowledge and new collaborations emerge. — Jeroen van Oostveen
New home base, new name.
In 2027 the event gets a new home base at the Midden Nederland Hallen and the organisation is strengthened by the collaboration with Next Venue. The editorial identity remains focused on material, design and application; the new combination adds operational strength, venue knowledge and room to grow.
The edition is no longer called MaterialDistrict Utrecht, but MaterialDistrict 2027. That makes the event more strongly part of a broader platform and less dependent on one place name.
Twenty editions, and a promise for 2030.
MaterialDistrict has existed since 1998 and marks its twentieth edition in 2027. From 2030 we will show exclusively circular material innovations.
Not only showing, but applying.
In 2026 MaterialDistrict launched an initiative together with TBI, one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the Netherlands, to bring sustainable material innovations closer to building projects faster. Twenty exhibitors pitched their innovation to a jury; three of them received a practice voucher of € 10.000 to work with TBI companies on scaling or a first application.
The vouchers went to Reduco, Mycelium Material and Isohemp.
Come and see what is already possible.
MaterialDistrict 2027 takes place on 13, 14 and 15 April at the Midden Nederland Hallen.