Bullet This Is No School

Learning is working best when kids are into subjects of study that match their interests. It also works well when projects are realistic.

Also there has to be place for the making. It should be possible to make prototypes, do experiments, program shows and produce goods to express yourself.

This Is No School is the world on a stamp. A meeting square, workshops, labs, a theater, a fram, sporting facilities, restaurants, shops and a hotel.

Bullet 80's T's

T-shirts for YouTube channel 2kB of Fun
2018


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Bullet Retro Space 4.0

Sound and Vision in Hilverum was interested in buying Retro Space arcade cabinets for their museum.

This request demanded an extra durable version of the Retro Space cabinets.

The new cabinet is fully re-engineered in folded aluminium sheets. The cab is fully modular, perfectly recyclable and gets prettier from a little use.

Bullet Pixel Art

Pixel art illustration for the book 2kB of Fun
2017


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Bullet 2kB of Fun

Never has a consumer electronic product seen such an extravagant variety in case design as early handheld games from 1976-1985. Never have computer games been so beautifully reduced to their essence as these handhelds offered. Never did 2Kb of memory offer so much fun.

1983 was the best year with top titles like Amidar, Astro Thunder 7, Burger Time, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Q*bert, Super-Cobra and Zaxxon.

Martijn Koch, architect from the Netherlands bought 180 of the best handheld games, photographed them, took them apart, analysed their tech, and put all the material together in this stunning book, a catalog like you never saw before.

Bullet DIY Arcade Cabinet

By the end of January 2013, Dutch Dame Garden asked me for a new series of arcade cabinets. They had to be finished within 1.5 month, to have it shipped to the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco from March 25th-29th. They wanted a new design with their beloved silhouette. The new version should be easier to carry, transportable as flat pack and when possible a lot cheaper.

The new cabinet can be assembled DIY with a standard 4mm hex wrench, just like IKEA furniture. De parts are made from white laminated poplar plywood for light weight and nice finish. At the top the cabinet holds 2 smoked plexi sheets to protect both screens at the front and the back. The Dutch Game Garden wants games to be visible on two sides for their Indigo shows. It allows a more passive group of visitors to just look at the games being played. The bottom part is filled with 2 matte white sheets of plexi. If you put multi-colour LED lights inside the bottom part, you can illuminate these sheets with any colour you like. The version that is showed here does not have any controls on the control panel. This is because companies that show games at Indigo bring their own controls. They make games for all platforms like Playstation, Xbox, iPad, PC etc, so there is no standard set of controls.

At the moment we are finding out the best way to sell this version to those who are interested in a DIY arcade cabinet.


Bullet STRP Festival 2011

Photo report of the STRP Festival 2011 by Mick Visser
2011


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Bullet Katakana Converter

Tool to convert Rōmaji, Katakana and ASCII/UTF-8
2011


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Bullet STRP Festival 2010

Photo report of the STRP Festival 2010 by Mick Visser
2010


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Bullet British Landlord

Luxury villas at the Berlaer site in Helmond
2010


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Bullet M+ M- ???

Redesign of the classic office desk calculator within 1 hour
2010


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Bullet Creative Factory

Interior photographs of creative companies in a former Philips factory
2010


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Bullet Future Space

Dutch Game Garden is a non profit organisation for promoting and supporting the Dutch games industry.

On april 23th DGG opened the Indigo Showcase event. This event shows a selection of the best contemporary projects of the Dutch games industry to the press, professionals and the general public.

Dutch Game Garden asked me to build 26 Retro Space cabinets to showcase these games. The cabinets have a second screen in the rear access door. This display allows the creators to discuss their projects while someone is playing the game at the front.

The cabinets were set up in a rigid grid. This grid neutralised the amorphous dated office floor and gave structure to the showcase event.



Photo 4,8 and 10 courtesy of Mick Visser

Bullet Lost in Navigation

Tokyo is a breathtaking city. Most metropolises have 1 urban railway network. Easy. Tokyo, the biggest metropolis on Earth, is a lot more complex.
The city has 2 official subway companies, the national railway operates several lines that can be considered metro lines as well, and there are tens of private operated railways that serve may areas just outside the central part of the city. Another problem is that many transfer stations use different station names on each line connected.

Creating a understandable subway map for this city is extremely complex. Should it be schematic, or geographic realistic? When is it easier to have a short walk than to switch lines?

This metro map for Tokyo only shows the most important lines for visitors of the city. That is already 25 lines! All distances are realistic, and the connections to Airports and Shinkansen trains are clearly visible. The parks that give a good orientation in the grey urban mass of Tokyo are visible. Icons show the most important landmarks. Matching the million neon lights the map is drawn in a night situation with the lines as glowing neon tubes.

The map is printed on 100x75 cm photo paper in a limited run, an can be ordered. Send an e-mail or call if you are interested to order.

Bullet XXL

A new factory for Kingspan insulation panels at Medel near Tiel
2009


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Bullet Trophy for Men

Result from a weekend workshop at WiSPER in Leuven: A trophy for real men, made from construction beams. The trophy is welded using MIG and metal arc welding (MAW) techniques.

Bullet Pac Man LACK Hack

One of the most popular IKEA products is the LACK coffee table. It is so cheap, it must be hollow.

I opened the tables, I built in a retro TV computer game by Jakks and added real arcade controls to this game. This way the TV game has a longer life and the Ikea LACK is no longer the boring classic every household owns.

Thanks to Lara Verlaat for Playin Pac-Man.

Bullet Want some Beers?

Photos of 2 projects by Johan van den Berkmortel
2008


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Bullet Monk Bond

8 Apartments for senior citizens in Heteren
2008


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Bullet Black Box

A new business building for 2 entrepreneurs in Kesteren
2008


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Bullet Low Bandwith

When the design of Retro Space was finished, we needed a matching website.
Because of the presumption that Retro Space could become a hit on the internet, we tried to make the website as small as possible. We did not want the website to crash on bandwidth problems.

Matching the style of the retro games, the website is designed in pixel art. All elements except some product shots are GIF images in 4 colours. It's just like the early years of internet when bandwidth was scarce.


Bullet Retro Space

Modern arcade cabinet for home use
2008


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Bullet Welcome to Andenne

Entry Europan 9 Martijn Koch and Wendy van Rosmalen
2007


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Bullet I never promised you a rosegarden

An abandoned commercial plot in the centre of Heteren had to be filled with 19 apartments. Contractor Kuijpers had moved to the city limits and the housing corporation "Woningstichting Heteren" had 4 outdated senior-citizen houses on the adjacent plot at the Rozenpad street. The combined plot connects a traditional village street with a seventies extension to Heteren. The housing coorporation asked me to design the modernist block fitting the seventies area.

I designed this appartment block as employer of Bouwkundig ontwerp- en adviesburo van Zeist BV

Bullet Little Mermaid

When we visited Copenhagen, I was surprised by the complex metro map for the very small network. It should be possible to draw a map easier to understand and graphically more appealing to visitors.

I designed a new metro map that shows the relation with the city. It combines all trains with different schedules on similar routes to bring back overview.

Autonomous work

Bullet BBQ XL

Veranda extension to house in Beek en Donk
2006


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Bullet Cinderella

While doing a creative portfolio course at the CKE in Eindhoven I worked on a new interpretation of the story of Cinderella.

Thanks to model Christine Nabuurs, to Jeroen Roxs for the workshop location, and to John Körmeling for using his veranda.

Bullet Wanda Wanders

The avatar Wanda Wanders was born in a chatconversation with Margot Scheltens. Wanda wanders around the World and shares her sharp opinion on various topics.

I created the website both technically and graphically. Many of the articles are written by me too.

Wanda Wanders is a registered Benelux trademark.

http://

Bullet Unknown Modernism

Anonymous modernist housing near Faro
2005


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Bullet Ghost World

Detroit is a weird city. The city disappears slowly and turns back to nature. Not caused by war or disaster, it vanishes because of economic irrelevance. De automotive industry moved towards the Mexican border. Jobs are gone. The city renders useless. The General Motors headquarters still shine as a major highlight downtown. Perhaps as an icon for the glorious past.

These photographs are taken during a trip of the USA and Canada in the autumn of 2005.

Bullet Fake Wanders

Mixture of the Big Shadow and the Fake Lamp
2004


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Bullet Ants Nest

Hong Kong has little room to built. There is a small piece of land to build on between the water and the mountains. The only option to house the millions of citizens is to use efficient towering blocks. Some area's have a FAR (floor to ground area aspect ratio) of 5 to 10.

Bullet Miniature City

Portrait of the Brandevoort city extension of Helmond
2004


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Bullet Blue Envelope

The Dutch Tax Administration feels like a family business. The atmosphere is open and relaxed. The organization is responsible for the total financial administration of The Netherlands Ltd. Dutch citizens expect professional civil servants. The office at the Quintax location in Apeldoorn expresses the two faces of the Dutch Tax Administration. The building looks severe and mimics the impregnability of Fort Knox. But internal, the building is totally transparent. Walls are exceptions, and voids open the floors to improve contact between employees.

At JHK Architects, I was responsible for the concept of the building. I also worked out most of the technical details.