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
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".
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.
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.
