Road Trippin' France

At the end of july I went on a roadtrip through France. We travelled clockwise first visiting Ronchamp, then Annecy followed by Aix-en-Provence and finished in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil. A tiny village in the Dordogne with a name longer than its mainstreet...

Ronchamp - How Piano undermines Le Corbusier

The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp is one out of many renowned buildings by Le Corbusier.

It is the first day of our road trip through France and I insisted on a visit to the building I’ve seen and read so much about. Especially during these rural times...

Decoding Disneyland

I visited Disneyland Paris for the first time in my life due to a marriage anniversary in the family.

On day one we arrived in Paris and did some sight seeing. A boat trip on the river Seine - you know the drill. The second day we visited Disneyland.

There’s a lot to tell about the place. How Walt Disney was inspired by slot Neuschwanstein when designing Cinderella’s castle... The general layout of the theme park... But that’s not what surprised me while being there...

Canopy by Explosion

Reset ‘t Kruithuis - An open design competition by the BAI ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

‘t Kruithuis is an old powder magazine just outside the city wall of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. It is part of the 17th century fortification of the city.

Today the magazine houses STOK - a foundation looking after the interests of professional artists. STOK currently employs ‘t Kruithuis for exposition and educational purposes.

The commission for the open design competition is straight forward: Reset ‘t Kruithuis - invent a new function, create a design to implement it and re-use the complex by doing so...

Architectura & Natura II

Architectura & Natura II - the second half of my first semester at the Academy for Architecture and Urbanism Tilburg.

Instructors: Claudia Schmidt, Jurgen Stoye, Stijn Kriele, Mark van Veen.

Assignment: Design a 60 to 75 meter high look-out tower. Develop a construction method, determine the materialization and built an architectural model 1:50.

Think of several environments where your tower could be place and visualize them...

Architectura & Natura I

Architectura & Natura I was my first commission at the Academy for Architecture and Urbanism Tilburg.

Instructors: Claudia Schmidt, Jurgen Stoye, Stijn Kriele, Mark van Veen.

Assignment: Each student chooses a type of grass as the starting point for this three step design project.

1. Analyze the (growth) structure of the grass and convert it into a structural model.
2. Transform the structural model in to a construction.
3. This step will be explained later on...

Testing...

"A truly great structure, one that is meant to stand the tests of time never disregards its environment. A serious architect takes that into account. He knows that if he wants presence, he must consult with nature. He must be captivated by the light. Always the light. Always."

Simon Wyler, the Lake House, 2006