December 2006. Rebuilding Roombeek, rebuilding the former Rozendaal factory. The fireworks disaster ruined the neighbourhood which was rebuilt. The old textile factory became a new artist place, museum, gallery, restaurant in Roombeek in the north of Enschede. As an artist who worked in one of the damaged studios I was offered a new location in the old Roozendaal factory. Thanks to all the combined efforts of citizens of Enschede, the municipality, much aid from outside town this neighbourhood was rebuilt. Now, almost 20 years later, the museum changed it’s name, the gallery left, artists moved, the restaurant is still there. And so is my studio. It is crowded now, equiped with many tools, things gathered in these 20 years. Much changed, some things are still the same. Still working with wood, steel. New is working with children, giving workshops, and working with new tools as the router, the lasercutter and applying new methods, learned at the university of Twente. But making art, and also designing, is still a matter of discovery, awe, attention, searching actively for the unexpected, keeping the eye and mind open, being able to translate what is noticed, seen, felt into a shape, an object, a print
