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"
Creative Factory
The Clock Building is a magnificent icon for Eindhoven. It is built as factory by Philips Electronics in 1928/1929. After having been used for years as office space by Philips, the building now transforms back to its original function: a factory.This time no series production. Trudo turned the building into a creative factory. Architects, designers, musicians, photographers, creative consultants: a colourful aggregation of creative talent took over this icon of the city Eindhoven.
The building has been split into units of various proportions. They all share one common feature though. Huge window openings with delicate metal frames. The light that enters the building gives unity to the diversity of interiors.
I photographed numerous interiors of the Clock Building to give insight in the new use of the building. The transformation of the Clock Building is a starting point in the transformation of the city district Strijp-S, a new centre for the city of Eindhoven.
The pictured companies are from left to right: Architectuurcentrum Eindhoven, Little Mountain, Keukenconfessies (2x), Desque, FuturOn.net, De Boekenmakers, studio-OOK, Scherpontwerp, Lady Penelope, Dikgedrukt en PopEI
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
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Fake Wanders
The lamp is a joke. I had no space to place the Big Shadow Lamp by Marcel Wanders. I also liked the idea of the Fake Lamp by Sophie Krier, but not its shape. I mixed them and created the Fake Wanders. Definitely not for sale.
