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.
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
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.
Want some Beers?
ZZEF asked me to photograph 2 projects designed by Johan van den Berkmortel for the architecture portfolio of ZZEF.One project is a beer cafe at the monk brewery Koningshoeve and the other is the Bavaria House in Helmond.
Monk Bond
When I started working at "bouwkundig ontwerp- en adviesburo Van Zeist" the preliminary design for these 8 apartments had been made already. I drew up the technical detailing.One of the challenges was to draw the brickwork in monk bond, just like the classic houses in the same street.
To show the appartments are built in 2008, many details are modernized. The balconies for example look like old wooden porches, but in fact they are made of brown concrete and steel.
Black Box
Painter Bert de Haas and salesman in business outfits Chris Hendriks both wanted a new business building in Kesteren. Because of fire regulations it was best to combine the two buildings. Otherwise a big part of the plot was useless.To preserve each ones identity and to answer the request for a good cantina, both parts of the building were accented by a small tower. These towers contain a special room looking out over the polders of the Betuwe.
The building is clad with anthracite profile sheets to ease the implementation of the detailing and to maximise the abstraction of the black boxes.
I made this design as employer of Bouwkundig ontwerp en adviesburo Van Zeist BV in Opheusden.
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
