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

Fourth incarnation of the Retro Space arcade cabinet in aluminium
2017


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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

Een plat pakket doe-het-zelf versie van Retro Space
2013


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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

Colaboration with bureau ZZEF

For more information check out:

Bullet M+ M- ???

Redesignme.com is a website where designers are challenged to create new designs for certain products.

Garton Jones used redesignme.com to search for a redesign of the Ativa 10 Digit Desk Calculator.

I'm always puzzled by the fact most calculators still function like the early 1970 designs. A time when chip logic was very expensive, and the amount of components was kept to a minimum. Today's standard micro controller is way more powerful. So my primary goal was to create a new set of basic functionality.

Which means I had to redesign the layout of the buttons first. The design itself continues proved ingredients like injection mould plastic, the perfect shape of PTT's Zurich telephone and modern white OLED matrix displays.

My own challenge was to make the design in one hour on a Friday afternoon.

The result: a top 3 note among 109 redesigns. "Your redesign was part of my top 3. Very well done! Yours sincerely, Charlie Garton-Jones"

Bullet Creative Factory

Interior photographs of creative companies in a former Philips factory
2010


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Bullet Future Space

26 arcade cabinets for Dutch Game Garden
2010


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Bullet Lost in Navigation

A new and usable subway map for the biggest city on earth: Tokyo
2009


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Bullet XXL

Kingspan Netherlands wanted to expand their factory for insulation panels in Kesteren, and to combine it with their distribution facility and offices in Dodewaard.

At the new industrial zone Medel near Tiel the needed 700.000m2 plot was available. The area also allowed high risk production plants.

At the moment phase 1 is completed. The plot has room for expansion with 2 more production lines and 3 times the amount of distribution storage that is part of phase 1.

Kinspan asked construction and design firm Van Zeist to draw the design. As architect I was responsible for the design up to approval of the design by the urban supervisor and the local "beauty commission".

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 Burgstede

A new catholic community centre for Heteren
2009


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Bullet Pac Man LACK Hack

Hacking Ikea table with Sega Megadrive or Pac Man inside
2009


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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

Website for Retro Space
2008


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Bullet Retro Space

Modern arcade cabinet for home use
2008


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Bullet Welcome to Andenne

Andenne is a small town on the bank of the Meuse between Namur and Liège. When entering Andenne the city does not impress. The abandoned factory area on the north bank of the Meuse makes a chaotic impression and the river is ignored. In collaboration with Wendy van Rosmalen I designed a new plan for this Europan 9 location.

With out plan we want to give Andenne a face. Between famous cities like Namur, Huy and Liège, Andenne is missing an inherent identity. We chose to multiply the nonchalant character of Belgian building and turn it into a specific typology. Our plan is a framework for development of the area in its own pace. A subtle guidance in building alignment and building heights delivers a varied public space that opens up towards the river Meuse.

A specific part of the assignment was the redesign of Andenne station. Bad attainableness of the platforms, a weird logistic and the uncomfortable public space underneath the viaduct are creating a moody atmosphere. The size of Andenne does not allow a large scale intervention. We choose a very modest solution. We created a square below the tracks to connect al transportation streams. The viaduct is decorated to resemble a living room and is transformed into a roof covering the bus platforms. New buildings surrounding the square size the public space.

Every Belgian wants its own house. Ignoring this feat makes a plan implausible. We go one step further through making the buying of a house resemble the buying of a car. By using a smart basic layout for the houses, every house can suit the needs of very different groups of people. Future change is very easy too. The architecture is a caricature of traditional Belgian building methods, its execution is contemporary and flexible.

Bullet I never promised you a rosegarden

11 Apartments for senior citizens at the Rozenpad in Heteren
2007


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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

Frank en Chantal van den Eijnden asked Johan van der Berkmortel and me to design an extension to their house in Beek en Donk. It was supposed to replace a decrepit shed and to add a new veranda with a fireplace. Two L-shaped entities frame the view into the deep garden. The brick element contains the chimney and acts as a bench. The wooden part contains the new shed, a log storage and a tool shed, and continues into the ceiling of the veranda.

This assignment is done in collaboration with Johan van den Berkmortel.

Bullet Cinderella

Concept for a modern picture story based on Cinderella
2005


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Bullet Wanda Wanders

A digital magazine on sustainability, photography, cityscape and opinion
2005


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Bullet Unknown Modernism

Anonymous modernist housing near Faro
2005


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Bullet Ghost World

Photographs of Detroit
2005


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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

Brandevoort is one of the big suburban extensions according to the governmental document Vinex. Under supervision of Rob Krier, the city of Helmond tried to mimic the classic Dutch canal city for its big extension. Modern legislation on parking and the fact that a family in a suburban plan like this needs 2 cars to reach all daily facilities, resulted in weird interiors for the urban blocks. The gardens are petite, and most space is used for the cars.

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.