2011: Towards the end of 2010, my main theme of focus was on ‘homeliness'. Via YD+!, I become involved with the urban studio Pal Maas in the Afrikaanderwijk. Together with 22 youth and 7 designers, two spaces provided by the Vestia Housing Association are installed and furnished. Under the title ‘Buurtsuper', this space will center on linking talented youth with the direct neighbourhood. The coming 2,5 months will present new interesting insights into the way in which (and how) younger people interpret feeling at home and ‘homeliness'.
On the 18th of November 2010, Stipo, in collaboration with Inspiring Cities, YD+I and Vestia, organized ‘an evening about homeliness'. Together with 50+ professionals, we explored the Afrikaanderwijk and had various personal/professional, openhearted conversations with people that live in the neighbourhood. Not only did this provide a platform for knowledge transfer, it was above all very personal. The reactions to the evening were all positive and enthousiastic. In 2011, we want to host a similar event in the city-distinct of Poelenburg (Zaandam) where we will be interviewing the inhabitants at the ZVH Housing Association. These interviews will also interest urban anthropologists, such as my colleague Ester Heiman, who completed her research about child-friendly urban routes at the start of the year. This year, we therefore discover more and more tangents between our two fields of expertise.
Besides the theme of ‘homeliness', I am also involved in other projects, such as writing the Economic Vision for the city-district Goedereede and several other neighbourhood/town Visions within the city-district Roosendaal. All in all: captivating assignments that have led to the broadening of my knowledge and experience.
2010: Urban psychology remains at centre stage in 2010, from which a meeting with ten experts transpires. I also deliver a lecture at the TU Eindhoven. For the city-district Bunnik, I become involved in the inspiration-day concerning the future Vision that Stipo formulated a few years previously.
2009: In my work, psychology increasingly takes on a more prominent role and following my graduation at the start of the year, I keenly take on my new position as ‘Urban Psychologist'. As an urban psychologist, my focus lies in discovering where urban development and psychology intersect, in order to portray and verbalize the influence that the environment has on the human psyche. For the VPRO, I write a series of blogs about urban psychology. I also deliver a lecture about Informal Social Networks for DUS Architects and give a story-telling at the Binnenmaas Municipality about meeting places. For the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), I present a story about a specific location in Rotterdam-North (told from an urban psychology perspective). This story is told to various groups of visitors at the mentioned location.
For the Seinpost Advice Agency, my colleague Kees Jansen and I organize a training day about the perception of the urban environment and the influence of perception on the total experience of an urban space. I also deliver various presentations at other training days, including one about ‘courage' at the Binnenmaas Municipality (together with colleague Arie van der Ham) and the subsequently developed module on Social Intelligence. At the Drechtsteden and the Utrecht Municipality, I develop further training techniques, such as applying speed-dating methods in formal settings.
Besides these training days, I become involved in various other projects, including the ‘Wijk van je Leven' (A Neighbourhood for Life) for the Binnenmaas Municipality. I find it fascinating discovering the processes that unfold when a new neighbourhood is built in an existing town. I also assist Kees Jansen with the writing of the Social Vision of the VINEX-neighbourhood Saendelft and the ‘Kwartiermakerproject' in the city-district Zaanstad.
2008: Completed internship in clinical psychology. Design of the psychology component at Stipo. The challenge of discovering what role psychological processes play in projects and how this can contribute to the Stipo approach.
2006: Research into the moods of older people in residential care. This became the subject of my dissertation and led to the discovery of an unsuspected passion: the lives of older people.
2005: Started with Stipo on the administrative side and providing support for the site.
2002: Started psychology study at the University of Amsterdam. Move to a flat in Amsterdam.
2000: Completed secondary education, packed my bags and took off to the United States, where I spent a year at High School.
1998 - 1999: Together with my father and a friend, we discuss a book or an article we have read every Sunday evening. The subjects we discuss: often philosophy and psychology, but sometimes other subjects too. The aim is to generate interest in new subjects and learn to make links between all sorts of information.
1983: I come to the world as the youngest member of the family; that hasn't changed since.