Breaking news from the pop up front: Columbia Adjunct Architecture Professor Kevin Wei has joined our 3DEA Advisory Team (3AT). You may know Wei from the half-naked pictures he scatters across the Internet. Sorry: Wrong Kevin Wei. 3DEA’s Wei sits at the increasingly trafficked intersection of computer design, robotic manufacturing and traditional metalworking. He’s a blender! If your idea has to do with three-dimensional products, Wei will have subtle invaluable insight. At Openhouse, we’re in love with blending. In love. Done well, pop ups are a seamless blend of real estate and media, two polar opposites that constantly need meshing, re-meshing, re-meshing. Our team is one big international mesh: founder is half Lebanese; executive director is German-born, Dutch-educated; operations director is half Korean, social media man is American-born Guatemalan; PR guy is Nanchang-born; Web designer is half Russian; I’m half Belgian. Flemish side, mmhmmm.

Wei is half Chinese, half Irish, considers himself American. Fits right in! He earned advanced degrees in architecture, urbanism and applied research from Columbia as well as a BA from Carnegie Melon. He teaches at the Shapeways Skillshare School and sells lots and lots of jewelry. Wei helps run our in-house Inventors Bar at the 3DEA pop up at the Eventi Hotel (835 6th Ave. + 29th St.). He’s been helping visitors with their designs and has been blending the bespoke with the functional on a daily basis. And he’s also taught a handful of 3DEA classes.

If you are trying to mesh your Next Top Makers idea with product development, marketing, the commercial world or just want someone to talk to, email us at greg@openhouse.me. Or, come in and say li hao to Kevin. To read up on the Next Top Makers competition visit their site. 

Kevin made all of these: