Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. in collaboration with MAXON Computer, DOSCH DESIGN, Arroway Textures®, and AMD FireProTM professional graphics recently held the 2013 “Your World, Reimagined” global design competition, in which professional and student designers were asked to tackle an old, dilapidated or run-down locale and redesign it for a new, improved use. Entries ranged in focus from adaptive reuse to landscape reclamation and object redesign, and Maryn Hekker, a freelance interior architect from Amsterdam, won the Best Overall Submission award for her redesign of “The Pier of Scheveningen.”
Hekker began studying interior architecture and spatial design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in 2008, but temporarily left her studies to pursue traveling. In 2010, she worked as a junior designer at Horecawerf Amsterdam and continued her travels thereafter through Asia, New Zealand and Australia in 2011. Upon her return, she reenrolled at the Willem de Kooning Academy and received her bachelor of design degree in interior architecture and spatial design in 2013. Her final graduation project was also nominated for the Drempel and BNI prizes.
Where does Hekker find inspiration for her designs? “I get inspired by the world around me: shapes, buildings ... But I always use myself as a starting point: what do I want to see or feel here, what do I expect?” she says. “This helps to find out what others would require of a place.”
Hekker’s entry was a reimagining of “The Pier of Scheveningen” in the Netherlands. In her proposal, she redesigned the pier as a public island, in which its interior design and architecture closely relates to the surrounding climate and landscape to feel as though you’re outside when inside. Comments about Hekker’s submission from the competition judges included the following: “A very interesting concept and modern back-to-basics facility. This should be the basis for future architecture. Great design board, ingenious and creative concept, and a clear presentation. You feel there is a fire in the person who made it.”
Hekker says the time she took off from school to travel filled her with energy, and it also influenced her design for this project. “During my travels I often slept on the floor, in huts,” she says. “I loved to be so close to nature in the morning, to see the sun rise. In my design, I'm going back to basics: the cave only has a shower nozzle and a hanging net. That's great, because these days, what's interesting about a luxury hotel room anymore? Luxury has become boring. Experience is the real key.”
She designed her concept for “The Pier of Scheveningen” using Vectorworks software. “I make everything in Vectorworks and CINEMA 4D,” she says. “Sometimes I use Photoshop, for fine-tuning. I do not use other drawing programs. In Vectorworks you’ve got it all in one package, so why would you want to use other programs? Moreover, I often see things in other drawing programs which I can do much faster and more efficiently in Vectorworks.”
As part of her award package, Hekker received a $2,000 Visa gift card sponsored by AMD and the DOSCH DESIGN Collection: HDRI Complete.
Other category winners included:
Best Computer Rendering: Dmitry Boykov, founder, db-arch studio (Stuttgart & St. Petersburg, Germany)
Best Animation: Kourosh Asgar-Irani, Architect at B&M Architektur and teacher at Atelier04 (Vienna, Austria)
Best 3D Modeling: KANG Jian, student at The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China)
Best 2D Plan: Charlotte Le Dain, student at the École Spéciale d’Architecture (Paris, France)
The winners were selected by a panel of judges from around the world, including designer and sculptor Nicholas Dunand; digital artist Shinya Fujimura from 3D-KOBO; architect François Lévy from François Lévy, Architect; lighting and production designer Tyler Littman of Sholight, LLC; architectural visualizer Alejandro Nogueira from DECC 3D Art; architect Peter Petz from German-Architects.com; digital animator Marc Potocnik from renderbaron; architectural visualizer Erik Recke from Datenland; assistant professor Katherine Bambrick Ambroziak from the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and project architects Maxime Czvek, Thomas Rigby, and Tom Boogaerts from BOGDAN & VAN BROECK ARCHITECTS.
