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

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

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.


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

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

A new factory for Kingspan insulation panels at Medel near Tiel
2009


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Bullet Trophy for Men

A man is a real man, if welding is what he can!
2009


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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

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

Modern arcade cabinet for home use
2008


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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

11 Apartments for senior citizens at the Rozenpad in Heteren
2007


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Bullet Little Mermaid

A design for a new metro map for Copenhagen
2006


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Bullet BBQ XL

Veranda extension to house in Beek en Donk
2006


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Bullet Cinderella

While doing a creative portfolio course at the CKE in Eindhoven I worked on a new interpretation of the story of Cinderella.

Thanks to model Christine Nabuurs, to Jeroen Roxs for the workshop location, and to John Körmeling for using his veranda.

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

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.

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.