Tom's Public Space

People In Motion

2006-06-19T17:21:00.000+02:00

For the final assignment we created the concept: People In Motion.

People In Motion is an Urban Screen Project located at the Central Station of Amsterdam.

Details and information can be found at the following website:

People In Motion website

Profile a Place

2006-04-25T19:46:00.000+02:00

The Place

Schiphol Plaza is the main sqaure in Schiphol Airport. Thousands of visitors and employees pass here on a daily basis.

The Functions

Schiphol Plaza acts as a meeting point for people, a place to just shop before or after traveling, eat or drink something, but also as a space where a lot of travelers switch trains and busses since there are several rails and busses which stop at Schiphol on a regular base.

Reachability

Schiphol Plaza is very well connected to a lot of forms of transportations. Trains and busses come and go in almost every single direction. It is also positioned next to the highway leading to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and other big cities in the Netherlands.

Athmosphere

Since it is still a part of an airport, it’s a very crowded space with a lot of hasty travelers running around it. This isn’t really giving it a nice atmosphere to stay there for a longer period. This doesn’t affect the fact that a lot of people still are sitting on the terrace for a cup of coffee, which also makes it a place where you could easily pass some time while waiting for your friends/family to arrive.

Side note: I almost got arrested for taking these pictures, since security seems very uptight about random people taking random pictures of the Plaza. This doesn't really help the relaxed atmosphere this place should have in my opinion

The user scenario

2006-04-25T18:14:00.000+02:00

The Space:

We observed the cafeteria on the ground floor of the campus. Mostly occupied by students and teachers taking a break. The activities in the cafeteria vary from eating dinner, making homework or just sitting through the hours between the classes.

The space is by itself divided by the big rows of tables in it and the people sitting in the space seem to automatically use these rows of tables to make little groups of their own without having to bother other groups. This really takes away the possibility to make the cafeteria a big cozy space.

The User:

The user of this space we interviewed was a 36 year old employee of the catering service on the campus. She mainly worked in and around the cafeteria most days, so she sees a lot of things happening there.

The Positives:

The best thing about the cafeteria in her eyes was the fact that the room offers a lot of social contacts with other people on the campus. Most of the people on the campus tend to come to the cafeteria multiple times on a day.

The Negatives:

The worst thing about the cafeteria in her eyes was the fact that it's a really messy room. The tables are mostly littered with remainders of food and papers. This makes the room a little less pleasant to be in.

The Scenario:

The entire exercise can be found here

Biography

2006-04-19T19:18:00.000+02:00

I was born december 31st 1983 in a little village called Koog aan de Zaan which is on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

After I finished the HAVO I descided I wanted to do an education which asked more creativity instead of learning boring facts about things I can't really care much about. Through a friend of mine, who already studied IAM, I learned about this education and the creative aspect of it. This seemed to be the perfect education for me.

At the moment I work as a graphic/interaction designer for a small company in Zaandam which mainly focusses on local companies, but also has some big clients such as Cosmopolitan, Canon and TNS-NIPO for example.

In my free time I like to photograph, design, go to the pub and play the occasional RPG.

I'm also a huge party lover. I mostly go to underground parties all over the Netherlands. The main music styles I like are: Industrial, Noise, Industrial Hardcore which are mostly known as "Cybergothic"