The Chair of Textures is made from stainless steel. The beautifully intricate details are made using a laser cutter. This is an example of what you can achieve with modern technology. All the shapes of first drawn on a computer. After that, the laser cutter cuts the shapes into the sheet material. If you look carefully, you can see that the chair is constructed from three layers of stainless steel sheeting. The chair features all kinds of details. The legs are enveloped in flames. The front legs feature a flower pattern and a heart and butterflies are incorporated into the back of the chair. What makes this chair unique is that the Tjep designers have not allowed themselves to be restricted by the traditional chair shape. The planes and butterflies interweave outside the traditional chair boundaries. The Chair of Textures is being sold by Droog design.
The focus is on experience and international visitors. In addition to personal guidance, every visitor receives a tablet one entry that guides them interactively. In this way the visitor discovers all ins and outs of the port through augmented reality and virtual reality.
Nathalie van Impe, Head Communication and Marketing officer, is proud on Portopolis. “With this renewal, we are fully focusing on experience and interactivity. One ingredient we are not changing, our hosts are happy to welcome young and old and share their knowledge about the port with great enthusiasm.” Harbourmaster Annick de Ridder completes: “Through Portopolis, our port will also become more tangible to visitors and at the same time we will be working to support the largest economic engine in our region.”
Commissioned by Bailleul Ontwerpbureau who designed and conceived the visitor centre including all AR applications, Bruns was given the responsibility for the realisation of Portopolis together with the multimedia company CREATE.eu.
Photography: Inneke Gebruers
The families in the photo-reportage each form a bubble, so the mouthguards were taken off for a while.