Tagged: rotterdam

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

The Barge at Night, artist impression of the new Feyenoord stadium on the banks of the river Nieuwe Maas in Rotterdam

Design / Visualisation

10. October 2016

The Barge: a New Stadium for Feyenoord

There has been talk for years about a new stadium for Feyenoord, to replace the legendary football temple, also municipal monument, De Kuip (The Tub).Allthough I am not as frequent a visitor of the stadium as some of my fellow townspeople, I also have my memories of De Kuip. For example, of a competition match of Feyenoord against Vitesse: 2-1. Pierre van Hooijdonk was still playing then, so it must have been a while ago. Much longer ago I was at the best concert of the (twentieth) century by Eric Clapton. With Elton John as a disastrous support act and… Read More

Reflection of the New Luxor Theatre in the water of Rijnhaven in Rotterdam

Photography

15. September 2016

Painting Waves: the Coincidental Artist

If you’re looking at my photographic work, it’s obvious that reflections are an important theme: in mirrors, in water, in glass, in metal, on ice, on wet asphalt. I even have a board devoted to the subject in Pinterest. Today I want to talk about a special kind of reflection. Under the right conditions, reflections in an undulating surface start resembling oilpaintings. With water as a canvas and coincidence as an artist. Impressionistic scenes that you only need to capture with a camera. The right circumstances So what exactly are these right conditions? To begin with: it has to be… 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

Bench on the roof of the Groothandelsgebouw during sunset, with a couple in a romantic mood in the background

Photography

20. June 2016

The Rotterdam Staircase – a Stairway to Heaven

The Staircase, Rotterdam’s successful temporary tourist attraction, is taken down, but fortunately we still have the photos. In five weeks time 368.611 people climbed the 180 steps to the top of the structure of wood and scaffolding pipe, an idea of my esteemed former colleague Winy Maas. Allthough it’s likely that in reality there were just a few less, because I went up four times and I was probably counted every time. Challenge It’s strange: put a staircase and an escalator next to each other and everyone takes the latter, even if the height difference is just a few meters.… Read More

Huf Building, a national monument from the reconstruction era, photographed from the square near Saint Lawrence Church, late in the afternoon, with the building and its lighting reflecting in Delftsevaart

Photography

14. March 2016

The Reconstruction Top 10 – Rotterdam Highlights from 1945-1970

The the post-war reconstruction period of Rotterdam lasted roughly from 1945 to 1970. That doesn’t mean that there were no empty spaces left to fill after that. But still: in those first 25 years after the Second World War, the center of Rotterdam changed from a barren plain back into a bustling city. And in that quarter of a century a lot of exceptional buildings were built in the city. That calls for a (extremely subjective) top 10. Historical layers It is a common misconception that Rotterdam is not very interesting in terms of architectural history because all history has… Read More

Evening photograph of Rotterdam: Westersingel during the blue hour, with Codarts Art School and Calypso building in the background and a very old plane tree in the foreground

Photography

19. December 2015

Christmas Blog: Lights on the Shortest Day

If in winter it wouldn’t become dark so early, it wouldn’t stay light on summer evenings that long. In that respect, things are distributed fairly across the globe: over an entire year there’s the same number of daylight hours everywhere. In a way, we are now saving light for later. But there is another reason for not being too sad about the short days. Some theory to start with This year 21 December is the shortest day. Of course, also in that day there are 24 hours but it’s the day with the least hours of daylight. A less known… Read More

Impression of Dudok's Bijenkorf department store and windmill de Noord possibly reconstructed in Miniworld Rotterdam

Visualisation

15. October 2015

The Windmill Will be Reconstructed! But not on Oostplein

Well over a year ago I made a visualization of the reconstruction of the windmill on Oostplein in Rotterdam. A brief summary: the mill survived the bombing of 1940 but burned down in 1954; plans for rebuilding were voted down by the City Council because the windmill was standing in the way of progress. Since then, Oostplein has been the most desolate square of the country, or at least of Rotterdam. Reconstruction of the windmill would be a way to give the place some of its former allure again. Guerrilla marketing A guerrilla marketing campaign that I did together with Gyz… Read More

Conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter above lake Kralingse Plas in Rotterdam with the city's skyline in the background

Photography

3. July 2015

Rotterdam and the planets

I wouldn’t call myself an astrophotographer. I don’t have the equipment for it and after all, you can’t specialize in everything. Moreover, the Rotterdam city center, where I live, is not the best place to photograph celestial phenomena. Too put it mildly. Not only myself and my 600,000 fellow Rotterdammers produce a sea of light, industry and greenhouse horticulture also contribute to that light pollution. When you think you see stars in downtown Rotterdam, they are usually planets. Although those are much smaller than stars, they are also much closer and are therefore a lot brighter. A conjunction of two… Read More