Category: Various

Corten steel wall under van der Louw bridge in Rotterdam with root shaped openings shaping the word ROTTE-DAM

14. October 2016

The Wijnhaven effect

Why is it easier for our eyes to recognize certain patterns when we see those patterns on a photograph instead of seeing them in real life? Three examples and an attempt to explain the phenomenon. The extended Willems Bridge, it was a weird name for the bridge across Wijnhaven. Especially after the Willems Bridge itself was relocated two hundred meters further upstream, only connected to the extended portion by a strangely twisting road. A good reason to rename it Andre van der Louw Bridge, after the man with the moustache and the pipe who from 1974 to 1981 was mayor… Read More

Black and white photo of a two year old boy and a young goat, made in the summer of 1964

Photography / Various

19. August 2016

Six Decades of Photography

There are people – though they must be very old by now – who have witnessed both the first plane and the moon landing. A similar feeling comes over me when I think of how photography has evolved during my life. I have turned my archive upside down and made the following reconstruction. It will probably sound very familiar to anyone in their fifties or older and is hopefully informative for anyone who is younger. For convenience, I’ve summarized it into Six Decades of Photography, though I missed part of the first decade, and we still have to bring the… Read More

Image made in Google Earth of the layer of 3d buildings in downtown Rotterdam, showing the city hall, the former post office, Beurs wtc and the new Timmerhuis

Various

13. August 2016

Four Features of Google Earth

(Note: this article is about the desktop version of Google Earth and not about the web version. Read about the difference) For many years, Google Earth has been my favorite product by the company from California. Okay, the search engine is also very useful. But it remains priceless to be able to travel in a matter of seconds from outer space to any place on Earth. Or on the Moon or Mars. An unconvenient side effect however is that programs like Google Earth tend to fall victim to rapidly aging. It’s much more fun when the used satellite and aerial… Read More

Interior photo of the bridge keepers cabin of the Orange Bridge in Schiedam, during the Dudok exhibition with photos and drawings of Dudok's Rotterdam Bijenkorf

Various

3. July 2016

Dudok exhibition in Schiedam: the Bijenkorf triptych and more…

During the weekend of 2 and 3 July I organized an exhibition, together with Jan Sluijter, in the cutest (and probably the smallest) art gallery of Schiedam: the bridge keepers cabin of the Orange Bridge across the New Harbour. The photo exhibition was dedicated to the architecture of Willem Marinus Dudok. We had a good occasion for that: two hundred meters from the venue is one of Dudok’s creations: the HAV Bank, currently in use as a residential building. The exhibition was, admittedly, mostly focussed on one building: the old Rotterdam Bijenkorf. We had a lot of material about that… Read More

Van Kregtentunnel in Wierden, with on the walls tiling based on paintings by Fedor van Kregten, seen from the north

Photography / Various

20. July 2015

Cow Tunnel in Wierden Still Free of Graffiti

Two and a half years after the opening of the Van Kregtentunnel I went back to take a look at the project. The underpass, close to the station in Wierden, was still in good shape. Tunnels like this usually get covered with tags, pieces and other graffiti fairly quickly after opening. But in this case there’s no trace of that. Respect It could be that the municipality of Wierden has a very strict cleaning policy regarding this underpass. But it’s more likely that the graffitists have respect for the work of another artist. Master of the Beasts That other artist… Read More

Photo made in May 2015 of the Room for the River project in Nijmegen, showing the work on progress on the new channel and the Promenade Bridge

Photography / Various

12. May 2015

Work in Progress: Room for the River, Nijmegen

About five years ago, when employed at Royal HaskoningDHV, I worked on the Room for the River project near Nijmegen. Perhaps the most radical of all the projects in the national Room for the River program. Near the village/neighbourhood of Lent a new channel is created, cutting off the inside bend of the river Waal, resulting in a new island: Veur-Lent. Among other things, I made this animation. Suggested soundtrack: “This is your Lent” by Simple Minds on. Stills from the film were used to inform the public about the project like on these information cubes: Last Friday I was… Read More

Image of the Rotterdam Skyline on exhibition in the Lijnbaan Gallery on 3Develop premises, with in the background the real Rotterdam Skyline

Various

20. September 2014

Lijnbaan Gallery

In Dutch, the word for gallery is almost the same as the name for the walkway that connects the apartments in a highrise building. I had to do something with that coincidence. Added to that, I suddenly became aware of a curious contradiction. I am active on at least seven social media, but my home was not exactly recognizable as a stronghold of creativity. Time to make 3Develop more visible in the real world. I made a representative selection of my work and had it printed on canvas. I only had to conceive a smart, low-budget exhibition system and clean… Read More

Computer generated sketch of an ear of corn on a woodstrip floor

Digital art / Various

28. July 2014

Ear of Corn on a Woodstrip Floor

The past two weeks I was in Orsennes, France, to do volunteerwork at Sadhaka, a small organization that offers yoga and creative holidays in and around a converted watermill. It was good to be away from internet, phone and other things that make life pleasant but sometimes also rather complicated. Besides working in the kitchen, the garden and the henhouse there was also time to take pencil, marker pen, brush or pastel and to be inspired by the abundance of flowers and plants around the Moulin: Photoshop But no matter how fun and useful it is to work with traditional… Read More

Photo of the multi-colored and rather varied architecture of Bristol, England, with the Floating Harbour in the foreground

Photography / Various

7. June 2014

Colors of the City

Because of my ten-day tour through England, work on blog, twitter and other websites has somewhat stalled during the last weeks. Sometimes it is good to take some distance to all those social media. But during such a trip, I can not help looking with an architect’s eye at the things around me. Like at the colors and materials that are characteristic of certain cities. St.Ives, for example, a popular tourist destination in Cornwall, is almost entirely built with just three materials. Brownish stone, white plaster and gray (sometimes turned greenish) slate, used quite randomly. That results in a pleasantly… Read More