The city of Amsterdam asked for tiles
"An outcast sanctuary" talks about how skaters back then weren't very well loved and usually got send away and were sometimes even banned. So the subjects for the design are other outcasts like pigeons, rats, spiders, woodlice and nettles.
By seeing the skatepark as an organism the tile surfaces are like windows into it's soul, the holes in the "skin" add an extra dimension.
Pools date back to the beginning of the skatescene, in LA there were many empty pools that were used to skate in. We added 2,5x2,5 shaded tiles in rows of 8 along the sides to create "the" sound it took a lot of precicion to get the correct curve.
Why blue? The Danish architects, Glifberg&Lykke wanted our typical Dutch Delftblue but coming from the Netherlands, well, it's a bit boring...So we decided to do the whole thing in ballpoint, it takes you back to highschool in the eighties, doodeling away during boring classes.
Jeanine Verloop made these beautiful drawings that were to be colored in with ballpoint. These drawings were then scanned high at 1200dpi to be cut and pasted in Photoshop. The files were then send to the boys at Maatwerktegels to undergo the special proces of transfers made with ceramic glaze.
Found some doodles from my daughter Katharina and added them into the design.
And done! final tile in place...
Commissioned by the city of Amsterdam, skatepark design by Glyberg&Lykke, build by, skateon, tiles from Royal Tichelaar. Tile prints by Maatwerktegels and starring Carin van Dongen as Bonnie Tyler.