Van Woudenberg publishes a photo blog about cyclists in Amsterdam called ‘Amsterdamize’. My favourite photo of his is this one, from a series about biking in the winter. That back tire is almost flattened by the peer pressure.
The winning photo, called Family Cycle Train, can also be viewed on Flickr and distributed using a Creative Commons license.
If you were wondering, yes, this is a fairly common sight in the Netherlands.
The owner of an Amsterdam canal apartment had to suffer the indignity of just seeing a wall whenever he looked out of his bathroom window, so interior designers i29 fixed that for him: they added a vertical garden to the wall.
This was enough to land them the Bathroom Design Award 2010 in the Home category. (Unfortunately, the entire ‘site’ is made of Flash, so I cannot link to the 2010 page directly. Just click “Winnaars 2010.”)
The other category, Hotel, was won by Marjolein Garritsen for the bathroom in the Ilyushin Il-18 based hotel room we wrote about two weeks ago.
(Photo: Horizon Photoworks, used with permission. Link: Bright.nl)
If you want to become a CEO or a supervisor of one of the 25 Dutch companies that make up the AEX, the index of the country’s most actively traded securities, you’d better study economics in Rotterdam or civil engineering in Delft, Z24 reports.
Together, both universities have produced the majority of current CEOs and supervisors of AEX companies. The oldest university of the country, that of Leiden, and the largest universities, those of Amsterdam and Utrecht, play lesser roles in supplying large Dutch companies with their management. Fifteen of the 25 CEOs are graduates of either Rotterdam (8) or Delft (7).
The way the Dutch viewed their national airport Schiphol has changed over the years. From the starting point of an adventure, it became the nuisance in the backyard. The Bijlmer disaster of 1992, when victims living (and dying) in Amsterdam’s biggest ghetto were pushed into a secondary role to El Al’s secret cargo, really helped define this latter view.
However, Schiphol’s own ambitions are radically different. Instead of becoming a smaller, gentler airport, it wants to become the major air traffic hub of this part of Europe. People therefore started to look at alternative locations for the airport, not as close to the most densely populated area of this densely populated country. An idea that keeps floating to the top is that of an airport in either the IJsselmeer or the North Sea, even though the Ministry of Transport and Water Management concluded in 2003 that a second national airport was superfluous, for now. Such a water-bound airport could be an artificial island, or a mega-floater.
In 2007 Haskoning and Van Oord, who helped build artificial islands before, proposed rotating, floating landing strips (see illustration). And last week, Jan van Kessel got his PhD for a study into the stability of mega-floaters made of hollow, upside down, concrete ‘shoe boxes’, apparently, 50% more stable than traditional barges.
And even though the government has declared the debate redundant, the Dutch keep dreaming of their airport at sea.
Filed under: Art,Design by Orangemaster @ 11:29 am
Designed by Belgian artist Carsten Höller, you are looking at a revolving hotel room installed in Rotterdam’s Boijmans van Beuningen Museum. You can book this art hotel room for somewhere between 275 and 450 euro a night and have access to the entire museum to visit and enjoy in peace. The big glass plates that the furniture is placed on is what revolves very slowly.
This hotel room is part of an exhibition by Höller entitled Divided Divided, running until 25 April.
Here’s a fine Dutch example of necessity being the mother of invention. Two students from Delft University of Technology designed a delivery tricycle (‘bakfiets’) that acts as a moving van. It is powered by two people pedaling in front of the load carrying box as opposed to one person pedaling behind it. The idea is that it’s perfect to move students from one flat to another, couch and all, without having to use a car. “My parents had to drive 200 km to help me move a couch 2 km down the road,” explains Onno Sminia, one of the designers. In other words, very ineffective.
Onno Sminia and his friend Louis Pierre Geerinckx already found their first client: the City of Delft. The ‘vrachtfiets’ (‘freight bicycle’) was unveiled on 3 February and pedaled around town full of big furniture.
These lads are off to a good start when they finished their studies this summer.
Filed under: Music,Shows by Orangemaster @ 12:36 pm
Eurovision is the fast food of music. I don’t even understand how non-Europeans can get into this exclusive club, unless they pull strings like French Canadian Céline Dion did to sing and win for FranceSwitzerland in 1988 or lobby very hard like Israel did to be able to participate. Maybe that’s why I like this strain of gossip.
Although The Netherlands won the Junior Eurovision 2009 and apparently are able to put on a show non-Dutch people like in Dutch rather than English (or Dunglish), the adult version has been digging its own grave and may have hit China already.
Pierre Kartner (aka Vader Abraham) who is a international song writer and singer wrote this year’s song ‘Ik ben verliefd’ (Sha la lie) (I’m in love Sha la lie) and is being dumped on by the bucketful. The song sounds like it was written eons ago when the Dutch had no knowledge of the outside world, while the subject matter is the safest choice imaginable. The video above is a demo version and will be sung by many different artists.
To make criticizing him easier — and the detail has been corrected — Kartner wrote about the city of ‘Leningrad’, Russia which is now called St Petersburg. Kartner changed the problematic lyric and turned it into Moscow, which I’m sure was not politically motivated and tickles my Russian heritage.
The Netherlands hasn’t made the finals in five years going on six and their last win dates back to 1975, and before that 1969 when only a few countries ran the show. The Dutch often say they should just stop, but I say if Finnish heavy metal can win, the Dutch can surely get back into the saddle somehow.
So let’s go back even further, 1957, and listen to Teddy Scholten sing ‘Een beetje’ (A little bit) about being ‘a little bit’ in love, the Eurovision Song Contest winner of that year and ponder where did it go wrong. Teddy Scholten even sang a French version of the same song.
Tim Knol is a 20-year-old Dutch singer from Hoorn, North Holland who really looks like the Dutch guy next door, complete with nonchalant lumberjack wear (Neil Young comes to mind) and a no-nonsense Dutch manner. As of late, he’s been playing shows and concerts in the Netherlands and on 18 January he was on a Dutch talk show that breaks Dutch acts, De Wereld Draait Door (linked song starts at 1:42).
The video here above was taped outdoors in guy-next-door style. Tim is playing A Song for You by Texan singer Townes van Zandt.
The question buzzing around is why do people like this guy and his cover music? Besides an obvious good voice and good English pronunciation, what do you think is special about him?
We try to stay away from politics, but when candidates come up with cool posters like this, it’s hard to ignore them.
Philip Akkerman made this. He is an artist and a ‘list pusher‘ for the Stadspartij of The Hague. Municipal elections take place every four years, and the next one is on March 3. Several 24 Oranges commenters, by the way, will be running for office this year.
If you want to become a CEO or a supervisor of one of the 25 Dutch companies that make up the AEX, the index of the country’s most actively traded securities, you’d better study economics in Rotterdam or civil engineering in Delft, 
The way the Dutch viewed their national airport Schiphol has 
