The choice fell on architecture after a tour in an architect’s office. The way he spoke about the experience of architecture, this beautiful, applied art form, and the impact on people and their well-being touched me deeply.
At TU/e I learned what architecture and design entailed. I brought my interests in art, creative cognition, semantics, and ICT together both during my PhD at Computer Aided Architectural Design and afterwards in roles such as sustainability coordinator, R&D expert and facilitator for co-creation (Heijmans, De Twee Snoeken, Cool Idea Society). I discovered that I have a talent for innovation and creativity, and that sustainability is essential to me.
I received the Marina van Damme Grant for the idea of a CrowdBuilding site with a WasteApp. If you link building information and a digital identity to “waste”, the architect can design with existing materials. This software can create more awareness about the value of raw materials, with room for creativity. Compare it to Lego: you design the most amazing things with the blocks you have.
Thanks to the grant, I was able to immerse myself in change processes and I took the step towards entrepreneurship. I discovered that the biggest obstacle in the transition to a sustainable society does not necessarily lie in technology, but in human emotions. Within TalentCaching I now design serious games, working methods and trajectories in which ‘The Smile’, the Splendor of people and change leadership play an important role. Our goal: everyone is looking forward to the transition and enjoys working on it.