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

For my Youtube channel 2kB of Fun, I made several T-shirts based on logo graphics from 80's video games and electronic gadgets.

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

The incredible world of handheld video games from ‘76-’85
2013


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Bullet DIY Arcade Cabinet

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


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Bullet DAF 46 Super Luxe

Renewal of house extension with new car port for DAF 46
2012


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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

Luxury villas at the Berlaer site in Helmond
2010


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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

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

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

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?

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.

Bullet Monk Bond

8 Apartments for senior citizens in Heteren
2008


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Bullet 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.

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

In 1971 the first coin-op video gaming system was built: Computer Space.

Soon the video arcade as hangout was born. Many famous games as Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Streetfighter and Donkey Kong were filled with our quarters. Today the last arcades are closing down. The Wii, the Playstation and owner "mr. Counchpotato" have won. As an homage to this era and to keep all the classics playable Retro Space was created.

Retro Space is a modern arcade machine for at home or at work. It plays both all the arcade classics from Space Invaders up and all the console titles for your Nintendo, Sega or Atari. The system is made using modern technology and is flexible for future innovations. The system also is a perfect multimedia jukebox. Next to your favourite games, you can load Retro Space with your favourite music and movies. A full HD screen and a high quality speaker system ensure you to enjoy the best image and sound. And quarters are no longer needed.



Thanks to model Lara Verlaat for the imitation of the original Computer Space poster.

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

A design for a new metro map for Copenhagen
2006


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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

For most tourists the city of Faro in southern Portugal is nothing more than an entrance by plane to the Algarve. Which is a pity. The biggest city of southern Portugal is probably the only one giving room to creativity. You will not see kitsch appartment blocks for Dutch and Germans, but subtile shaped private houses for the Portugese themselves. You will see images that remind of modernists like Gerrit Rietveld, Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. You will wonder wheter MVRDV got inspiration here, or if Portugese architects checked out work of the Durch architecture firm.

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.