Category : photos

in personal, photos, travels
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Proud to be Dutch

A couple of days ago I picked up some family members in Amsterdam. I left a little earlier to ‘be a tourist in my own country’. Since I’d been in Amsterdam before, I decided not to go downtown but to check out several (famous) sights nearby the Dutch capital. Below I’ll mention three of them.

First stop: Muiden

To me Muiden is known as the northern end of the Dutch Water Line (Dutch: Hollandsche Waterlinie) and as part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam (Dutch: Stelling van Amsterdam). Also, Muiden is most well known for the Muiderslot. It’s probably the most well known castle of Holland.

In 1629 the Dutch started to protect the economic heartland of the Dutch Republic, Amsterdam, by creating a line of flooded land protected by fortresses. The water level in the flooded areas was carefully maintained to a level deep enough to make an advance on foot precarious and shallow enough to rule out effective use of boats (other than the flat bottomed gun barges used by the Dutch defenders). During the Second World War the line became mainly obsolete. In 1940 the Germans simply flew over the defense line using airborne troops. They caught the heart of “Fortress Holland” by surprise. Nonetheless, the defense line was kept into service until 1963. I’ve always been intrigued by these defense lines.

Second stop: IJburg, Amsterdam

IJburg is a residential neighborhood in the east of Amsterdam. I’ve been in Amsterdam several times, but never to IJburg. It’s currently being built on six artificial islands which have been raised from the lake. The artificial islands remembered me of Dubai (here and here), although I’ve never been there (and IJburg is not as big and prestigious).

Third stop: Enclosure Dam (Dutch: Afsluitdijk)

The Enclosure Dam is a famous dike with a total length of 32 km. It’s part of the larger Zuiderzee Works and the damming of the Zuiderzee, which was turned into a fresh water lake, the IJsselmeer. It’s one of the marvels of the Dutch battle against the sea.

Proud to be Dutch

After seeing these three places, I can’t help myself but to feel proud to be Dutch. How a small country can be big!

in architecture, personal, photos, travels
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Internship @ Coop Himmelb(l)au

During my undergraduate studies I wanted to do an internship at a large international architecture firm. In 2010 I reached this goal by working for Vienna based company Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Deconstructivist Architecture

Coop Himmelb(l)au was founded in 1986. It’s an architecture firm primarily located in Vienna, Austria. The company was founded by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer. It gained international acclaim alongside Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry with the 1988 exhibition “Deconstructivist Architecture” at MoMA.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Coop Himmelb(l)au is the fact they have their own style. I mean, they practically invented deconstructivism and they’re proud of it. And why wouldn’t they!

During the course of the internship I worked on several great projects. Believe me, it’s kinda special to work on skyscrapers worth over 200 million Euros (290 million USD).

Controlled Chaos

According to Wikipedia, the architectural style of Deconstructivism is characterized by ideas of fragmentation. The finished visual appearance is characterized by a stimulating unpredictability and a controlled chaos. This is also true for one of the projects I was working on… controlled chaos.

Unfortunately I can’t share any information of the project I was working on, although I already wrote it’s a skyscraper. A soon as the project hits the website of Coop Himmelb(l)au, I’ll also post it here. In the mean time, I’ll share some photos of the beautiful city of Vienna.

The Austrian Parliament

The statue of Athena in front of the Austrian Parliament

View of the world famous Schönbrunn Palace

Hofburg Theater

The Hundertwasserhaus

St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) at Stephansplatz

The Votive Church (Votivkirche)

Inside the Austrian Parliament

Inside the Wiener Musikverein

City Hall

The ferris wheel (Riesenrad) at Prater park

‘Roman’ Ruin at Schönbrunn (erected in 1778)

View of the world famous Schönbrunn Palace during winter time

I just realized I didn’t include pictures of the Hofburg Palace, State Opera, The Johan Strauss Monument or St. Charles’s Church, to name a view. Maybe Vienna has too many monuments?!

in architecture, personal, photos, travels
NY 1

Internship @ Rietveld Architects in New York City

In 2008 I did a six-month internship at Rietveld Architects in New York City. Rietveld Architects is a company founded by Margaret and Rijk Rietveld. The New York office is located on a convenient 600 meters walk from Times Square.

I rented an apartment in Lower Manhattan, between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. This resulted in a 30 minute travel from my apartment to the office, which I preferred to do by bike. During the course of my internship I biked on every avenue and almost every street of Manhattan.

Together with Rijk (leading architect) I worked on the many Dutch projects. These include City Hall The Hague, a conference hotel and an urban planning project.

Besides working at the architecture firm I experienced New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC. I’ve put together a selection of (random) photos I made during my stay in the Big Apple.

The Office

You guessed it! The red arrow points to the office of Rietveld Architects.

The Film Center Building. The office is on the top floor.

I’m in the middle-right of this photo (next to the window)

New York City

Free kayaking in the Hudson River. You can see the Statue of Liberty in the middle.

View from the Staten Island Ferry.

View from the Empire State Building.

View from the Empire State Building.

The office of Rietveld Architects was located on a mere 600 meters walk from Times Square.

Wall Street.

The shiny towers of the Time Warner Center.

One of my favorite skyscrapers in New York, the Hearst Tower.

The Brooklyn Bridge (can you see the waterfall?)

The world famous Guggenheim Museum

The Flatiron building during sunset.

View from the Brooklyn Boulevard.

Tribute in Light, an art installation of 88 searchlights placed next to the site of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light in remembrance of the September 11 attacks.

Lady Liberty

I went to the US Open quarter finals.

View from Jazz @ Time Warner Center during the New York Marathon.

More sports. Basketball, the NY Knicks.

And even more sports. A rodeo in Madison Square Garden.

Ground Zero and the World Financial Center.

One out of many times I visited Central Park.

New York Water Taxi in front of the NY skyline.

Reenactment at Governors Island.

Admiral’s house at Governors Island.

The Queen Mary 2 viewed from Governors Island.

My view from the office of Rietveld Architects on Veteran’s Day 2008. President George W. Bush visited the Intrepid on this day (you can see Marine One, the President’s helicopter, on deck).

Election Day 2008.

Before going to Harlem, I spent some time at Rockefeller Center.

Afterwards I went to an Obama campaign office in Harlem, NY.

I was in Harlem (125th street, opposite of the Bill Clinton office) when Barack Obama was elected president. A very special moment.

Winter in Central Park.

Winter Garden at the World Financial Center.

Manhattan during sunset.

Philadelphia

During my stay in New York City I visited several other cities, like Philadelphia and Boston.

Boston

Washington DC: The Inauguration of Barack Obama

During my internship Barack Obama and John McCain were all over the news. Since I’m really interested in American Politics, I consider myself lucky doing an internship in the US during the elections of 2008.

Wether Obama or McCain would win, I wanted to go to the nation’s capital for the Inauguration in January 2009. That’s why I booked my hostel prior to election day (in September). On a side note, this saved me lots of money, since I payed normal fees instead of the ridiculous fees hotels charged in and around Washington DC after Obama was elected. Obviously, I didn’t anticipate for such a historic election and Inauguration. Needless to say, I had a great time in DC.

in architecture, personal, photos, travels
4

Student exchange in Italy

Together with a friend, I went to Italy from October till December 2006. We were the first students from our school, the ROC Friese Poort, to be selected to attend classes at the Technical Institute ‘Alessio Tramello’. Also we did three short internships at several architectural and constructional companies in the afternoon.

Technical Institute ‘Alessio Tramello’

We attended classes at this institute every morning, five days a week from 8 AM – 1 PM. We studied subjects like Topography, Building construction, Plants, Drawing, Italian and English. We met a lot of people, learned a lot about the ‘Italian way of construction’ and had a great time at this institute.

Internships

We did three different internships. In the first 3 weeks during our visit, I went to the architectural company owned by mrs. Mitzi Bollani. Mitzi Bollani is the vice-president of an European expert group on accessibility and specializes in making buildings accessible to people with various handicaps. During this internship I performed a variety of duties including creating a 3D model of a large block of apartments, drawing various 2D and 3D models of buildings and drawing several pieces of furniture.

During the fourth week, we did an internship at ‘Edilstrade’. This is a large building construction company in the Piacenza region. This internship was less practical, but we learned a lot about Italian architecture, and visited an Italian university and a hotel.

The last internship lasted four weeks. Together with my classmate, I went to Cooperation Construction Val d’Arde (Firenzuola). This is a large architectural and construction company in the city of Firenzuola. During this internship, we spoke with the architects, discussed different aspects of construction with the firm’s employees and saw many construction sites in Piacenza, Firenzuola, Parma and other towns.

The experience

This was a great experience. I learned a lot about the Italian way of construction, the Italian school system and the Italian people. I saw many, many places and visited a lot of cities in the whole country. I visited Rome, Milan, Florence, Parma, Genua, Cremona, and of course Piacenza. Also, I went to the Alps and Rome.

in personal, photos, travels
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Summer school in the United Kingdom

In 2006 I did a summer school in the United Kingdom. I studied British Language and culture at the University of Bedfordshire. As part of our program we visited Windsor Castle (the summer residence of the Queen), Stratford Upon Avon (where Shakespeare lived) and Oxford (yep, the famous university). Also I visited London several times. Long story short, I had a great time in the UK.