My journey up until this point is quite an unconventional one. After high school, I was unsure what I wanted to do. With little time and no clue what degree I wanted to pursue, I hastily chose to study European Studies. After a while, I decided this was not where my passion lies. When the next school year came around, I decided to try something completely different: PABO (course to become a teacher). I enjoyed this course more, but I did not see myself becoming a teacher and decided to quit. With no idea what my next course would be, I decided to enroll into two course: Watermanagement and Fysiotherapeut. One of the teachers at Watermanagement managed to convince me to join this course. This was the right decision and I have been enjoying this course ever since. What exactly I wanted to do with this course only became clear to me last year. Throughout the course there are many subjects, but there are three main subjects: Governance, Design and Techniek (science). I was mostly interested in two of these, namely Design and Techniek. In my last year I realized that out of these two Design made me the happiest, so I pursued this by joining the minor “Ontwerp en Architectuur” (Design and Architecture). This minor does not only focus on architecture, but also the design process. I have always been interested in architecture, so this was a logical next step for me. However, I do not want to pursue a career in architecture. Because of this, I started looking for design oriented jobs close to my course, Watermanagement. This is when I came in contact with landscape architecture. To see whether or not I would enjoy working in this field, I joined a short summerschool hosted by Arcadis. I enjoyed this very much and since then I have been wanting to pursue a career in landscape architecture. I have never been sure what career I wanted to pursue, but now I am almost certain that landscape architecture is something I want to do for the rest of my life.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy my portfolio.
My First Design Experience - Drentsestraat
The first spacial design experience I had was with a course “Klimaatadaptatie” or climate adaptation. For this course, groups got assigned a street and had to implement measures to make this street be able to handle a predetermined amount of precipitation. For this we had to make hand drawings to showcase where the measure would be implemented. We also had to calculate the effects of precipitation on the area, which included knowledge about the permeability certain soil types have. Each member of the group had to choose their own measures, calculate the effects and make the drawings.
Campus The Manchester College
One of the most enjoyable courses for me was Design. In this course, we had to analyze the city of Manchester on socioeconomic, climate and physical aspects. Based on this analysis, we had to choose an area and redesign it based on the challenges this area faces. This allowed for much creative freedom. After a couple weeks we went to Manchester to interview locals and get a better understanding of the chosen area.
In our design we tried to solve flooding and the housing crisis Manchester is facing. We did this by adding more green initiatives to allow water to infiltrate into the ground. We also designed a pond in the lower part of the chosen area to reduce the chance of the river Irwell flooding. But the biggest addition in this design is the campus. In the chose area there is a school and students often do not have an apartment because of the housing crisis. We added a gym, a restaurant and places the students can hang out. The last addition were the bridges that allow people to safely cross the busy and dangerous road that goes through this area.
Givet
Daklozenparadijs
This course was a culmination of all the courses we had up until this point. We got assigned a boulevard or plaza and had to transform it based on daily use, climate and many other factors. We also had to interview stakeholders, make an asset management register and a water management plan. For this course, I focused mainly on making it visually presentable.
Our plan for this area was quite unconventional. We heard from the local district manager that the seclusion this area provides makes it an attractive location for homeless people to spend their time. This plaza is in between two locations for the University of Applied Sciences, so the presence of homeless people might be bothersome at this specific location. Since the opening of the two school there has been very little change to this plaza. We had the opportunity to present our plan to the head of one of the schools, so we made an “anti-plan”. In this plan we wanted to point out the lack of initiative by our school. We decided to turn the plaza into a homeless paradise. We did this by including everything a homeless person would need to survive and live here, including: a food/drug truck, pergola’s with heated seating, toilets that self clean and even bushes high enough to not be spotted by people so they can do drugs without same.
Gamble House Kippenhok
In the 4th and final year of my course I had to do a minor. I liked a couple option, but the one I wanted to do the most was the minor Ontwerp en Architectuur (Design and Architecture). For a long time I have had an interest in architecture so I saw this as an opportunity to try and go on a different path. During this minor we don’t just learn about architecture, but also learn about the process of designing a building and/or structure. It has also helped improve my designing and presentation skills.
For the first assignment we had to choose a famous villa and design a chicken coop for this villa. This meant we had to analyze the chosen villa in order to understand why this particular villa is special. I chose the Gamble House, located in Pasadena. This villa has a tree house vibe to it and almost blends into the environment. Some of the more important features of this villa are the overhang, the different kinds of wood that are used and the connection with nature. The home was meant to be used in the winter as to escape the harsh cold weather of Ohio. In my design I tried to incorporate these aspects, while also adding the sleeping verandas that are another key part of the home. This allows the chickens to have a connection with the outside while being protected from predators.
Additional experience
Outside of these school projects, I also enjoy drawing in my free time. I have drawn a couple of buildings that I found interesting or enjoyed looking at. Furthermore, I joined a summerschool hosted by Arcadis past summer. Different students from across the country joined to gain more experience. The assignment was to make the St Jansbeek reappear in Arnhem. This could be physically, virtually or figuratively. We decided to cool down the city center with cool spots, while also bringing the St Jansbeek back to the surface.
As a hobby, I greatly enjoy photography. I mainly take photos abroad and edit them when necessary. My focus is primarily on aesthetics rather than the underlying meaning of the photo.
Photography
Conclusion
You might have already noticed the blue line going through my portfolio. This line represents the river Maas and the journey it takes to get to the North Sea. It also represents my journey as person. At the start, it doesn’t know where it’s going. It follows a path without knowing where it’s going to end up. It goes through countries, cities, villages and many different landscapes to find the final destination. The final destination is a big sea, connected to oceans with unlimited possibilities. When I left high school I had no idea where my life would be going. I often wondered what my purpose was. Throughout the years the vision of my future got clearer and now I know what I want to do with my life. I am now looking at the ocean of possibilities that my journey has given me.
