July 26, 2013

Cleaning up the ocean, a young Dutchman’s vision

Filed under: Design,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

We’ve mentioned wunderkind Boyan Slat a few times and it has always involved water and pushing boundaries. This time, at 19 years of age, he’s been making waves internationally with his Ocean Cleanup Project, which aims at ridding the world’s oceans of plastics. The best thing to do is just watch the video and let him tell you what his plans are.

Problem: The plastic is not static, it moves around.
Solution: Why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you?
Fix the sea water processors to the sea bed, and save vast amounts of funds, manpower and emissions.

In his bio, Slat says: “It will be very hard to convince everyone in the world to handle their plastics responsibly, but what we humans are very good in, is inventing technical solutions to our problems. And that’s what we’re doing.”

This fits in with my personal philosophy that using guilt, shame and other negative emotions to force people to do something positive is not the way to go. I am already looking forward to the rest of Slat’s career.

(Link: m.parismatch.com, Photo: screenshot of Tedx presentation)

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July 25, 2013

Electric charging stations for cars at Dutch filling stations

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 7:11 pm

A court ruled that charging stations may be installed at normal filling stations albeit in the free parking area simply because electricity is not fuel. A collective group of filling stations tried to fight off businesses who wanted to install charging stations, but lost. The law on fuel states that filling stations have a monopoly on selling ‘fuel’ and if electricity isn’t fuel, then they can’t stop the building of charging stations.

This is good news for electric car owners, and particularly for people who rent electric cars but can’t leave the city limits because of the lack of charging stations. Some 250 quick charging station, which claim to be able to charge cars in 20-30 minutes, will soon enough be built to accommodate electric cars on Dutch roads.

Worrying about dropping petrol losses because of hybrid cars is premature, as we told you last year since Dutch Prius drivers use too much petrol.

(Link: www.elsevier.nl, Photo by DaveOnFlickr, some rights reserved)

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July 24, 2013

Fly your own drone-like favourite objects, DIY style

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 8:49 am

With this kit, you can turn your favourite object into a drone (the popular term) or actually an UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), as designer Jasper van Loenen explains.

As of 1 June 2013 you no longer need to have a permit to use a drone (thanks big corporations), so it’s time to get your favourite items up and flying. Allowing satellite pictures be made of the entire country, but then fining drones that take pictures for spying was finally considered obsolete.

Many of the parts in the kit can be created with a 3-D printer. Van Loenen made the printer files available, so that people can get into DIY mode with 3-D printing. About the printed parts, he said, “I recommend printing them in ABS or something similarly strong and durable. I printed them in ABS with a fill of around 50 percent and a rectangular mesh, but I think printing them with slightly more fill might be better. It will not increase the weight that much (all the printed parts are pretty light) and might increase the strength quite a bit.”

(Link: phys.org, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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July 23, 2013

Amsterdam North’s famous crane is being dismantled today

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 8:48 am

One of the symbols of Amsterdam North’s NDSM dock area is a towering, 50-metre crane (‘Crane 13’) that is said to weigh about 300 metric tons. Today marks the beginning of the crane being dismantled and brought to the province of Friesland to be renovated.

Currently, a design hotel that will be 45 metres high and a small television studio is being built right next to the crane (or where the crane was). The crane will eventually be put back, a good excuse for a party maybe, who knows.

(Link: www.amsterdamfm.nl)

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July 19, 2013

No wonder Dutch students live in containers

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:10 pm

It’s not too much of a surprise that student rooms in Amsterdam are the most expensive in the Netherlands at 100 euro a week, but maybe a little surprising that Dutch student housing is the second most expensive in Europe after the UK at 139 euro a week. Belgian and German neighbours are lucky, paying respectively 66 euro and 57 euro a week.

The typical ‘I’m looking for a room ad’ shows that people are willing to pay just as much and even more than people renting an entire flat to get a room. I also know a lot of Dutch adults who still have roommates, but then the amount of British television shows where adults share flats taught me as a non-European that it’s perfectly normal in Europe.

A few weeks ago I was part of a Canadian documentary about Amsterdam North’s NDSM dock area and both cameramen were stunned by the container village (see pic) that students have to live in, first thinking it was some sort of elaborate artwork. When I told them it was student housing, we talked about the differences between Amsterdam and Montréal were the entire crew and myself are from.

Amsterdam style:

– I actually know rich Dutch parents who bought a second house so that their daughter could have a room and share the house with friends.
– There used to be parties in Amsterdam where students could win a room in a house, not rent-free of course.
– Some adults stay in their student room years after graduation because there are very tough laws about throwing people out of their homes.

Montréal style:

– Student housing provided by universities is overpriced and usually full of foreigners who don’t know better. They usually wise up really quickly and get a normal flat.
– Renting a flat is easy, so there is no need for students to live in student housing. They live in flats just like normal people.
– The idea of renting a room in a house is weird. People rent a flat or share a flat, but don’t usually go looking for a room with the assumption that renting a flat is very difficult like it is in Amsterdam.

(Link: www.iamexpat.nl, Photo of Multi-storey container housing by Rory Hyde, some rights reserved)

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July 18, 2013

Chinese vase turns family into multimillionaires

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 3:50 pm

In 2003 an anonymous Dutch family inherited a Chinese vase and assessed its worth at 12,500 euro for the tax people. The rare vase of the Han Yuan dynasty then skyrocketed in value between 2003 and 2005 up to 100,000 euro according to the family, due to the many rich Chinese that were interested in buying these vases.

Just 20 months later at an auction at Christie’s in London, the vase went for a whopping 23 million euro. The tax people took the family to court, as they felt cheated and wanted to see a chunk of the megabucks. The family appealed the decision and the court made them settle at 10 million euro.

(Link: www.quotenet.nl, Photo of Chinese vase by epSos.de, some rights reserved)

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July 17, 2013

Dutch designed 3D printed shoes debut on Paris catwalk

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 12:02 pm

A manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing Stratasys has announced the unveiling of 12 pairs of 3D printed shoes during Paris Fashion Week. In collaboration with Dutch designers Iris van Herpen and Creative Director of United Nude (shoe above) Rem D. Koolhaas, Stratasys 3D printed the shoes with a number of intricate geometries designed to mimic elements of nature. Following the success of van Herpen’s recent collaboration with Stratasys for an elaborate 3D printed dress, Van Herpen teamed up with Rem D. Koolhaas to design a tree root inspired shoe.

(Link: www.dutchdailynews.com, Photo United Nude)

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July 16, 2013

Dutch tourist tax is the top moneymaker for municipalities

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:00 pm

This year Dutch municipalities expect to rake in 162 million euro in tourist tax, 62 million more than in 2010. In 2011, 174 of the 418 municipalities hiked up its tax and in some places, the tax at hotels simply doubled.

Of all the municipal taxes, it is the tourist tax that goes up the most each year. And this year 76 percent of municipalities are collecting this cash cow of a tax, as compared to 72 percent last year. Tourist tax on the Wadden Sea islands is quite high with Texel at 26 percent and Vlieland at 42 percent.

The winner is Amsterdam, cashing in on 37 million euro in 2013, and the year isn’t over. A dubious honourable mention goes out to Rotterdam, which got rid of the tourist tax in 2005, but brought it back in 2010.

Paying tourist tax in your own country as a Dutch person does not seem to make much sense, but you could easily argue it. However, it is unclear when and where you pay tourist tax, as every municipality has either a fixed rate or a percentage, looking like a typical Dutch bureaucratic free-for-all that nobody can keep straight.

(Link: www.nieuws.nl, www.etoa.org)

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July 11, 2013

Child injured on public art, parents take on city hall

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 11:05 am

In Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Dutch designer duo Tejo Remy and Rene Veenhuizen designed a place made of painted steel for primary school children to sit down that can also be used as a gathering point for annual class pictures. The artists claim that their work was inspired by children, but is by no means a playground. In fact, painted metal when wet can be very dangerous.

A seven-year-old girl hurt herself so badly on the art that she was rushed to hospital and now her parents are holding city hall responsible for her injuries. City hall replied that art is not a playground and denies any responsibility. Local residents and parents want the thing removed and have started a Facebook page.

Of course kids will play on it, that was to be expected unless you’re from Mars. Kids hurt themselves on normal playgrounds, even with adult supervision. The assumption that kids won’t play on it because it is not for playing is city hall’s argument and that’s really stupid. Parents telling their kids not to play on the art is useless because unless you’re from Mars, kids do stuff when adults aren’t around. There is a general assumption that placing the artwork there was safe, and city hall could be to blame.

I think some building codes should be reviewed. Putting anything with sharp edges near children and expecting them not to hurt themselves is stupid. Blaming artists for designing something that meets all building requirements is fruitless. The decision-makers in Hoogeveen were stupid in placing something so close to children with sharp edges and expect nothing bad to happen.

Put the art work elsewhere, Hoogeveen gets free publicity when the moving happens and praise from the parents, ask the artists’ opinion about the move and they get free publicity, too, everybody happy and safe. Next!

(Links: www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl www.telegraaf.nl, Photo: www.remyveenhuizen.nl)

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July 10, 2013

The world’s biggest bike garage planned for Utrecht

Filed under: Bicycles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:13 am

All that heavy duty construction work at Utrecht Central station, the country’s biggest train station, will eventually house the world’s biggest bike garage — all three floors of it. The garage will also feature a bike path and fit neatly under the train station, unlike the sea of bikes that can now be found around the station in the photo above.

Also home to Utrecht University, the country’s biggest university, Utrecht is very visibly full of students, many of which bike everywhere.

Just a few days ago we told you about how many wrongly parked bikes had been removed in 2012, but this kind of mega project should help alleviate the problem. The bike garage will be able to accommodate 12,500 bikes, which is exactly five times as many bikes as Amsterdam’s bike flat next to the train station that’s already overflowing.

Designed by Ector Hoogstad architects, the mega garage will open partially in 2016, and be ready entirely in 2018.

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo Photo of Bikes at Utrecht Central station by Fietsberaad, some rights reserved)

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