Drawing comics was his greatest calling from a young age.
Before his studies, he even applied to Toonder Studios, the creative forces behind Tom Puss and Ollie B. Bumble.
How different his career would have been had he been accepted!
Pieter enjoyed watching football, but one detail never left him:
the classic football - a 'truncated icosahedron' - isn't perfectly round.
The pentagons protrude just a little further than the hexagons.
He thought it could be better. After retiring, he dove into it wholeheartedly.
He designed a revolutionary variant in which all faces are precisely equidistant from the center. His proud name: the Hyperball.
He consulted with Adidas and Nike about its production, but ultimately decided to produce the ball himself and sell it to clubs.
In his book, he devoted the chapter "Isohedra" to this remarkable invention and other fascinating surface divisions.
At his last presentation for the IASS in Tokyo (2016), the finesse of the design was explained in an understandable way
to a large audience of architects - and at the end, his footballs literally flew through the hall!
Skating was undoubtedly his greatest passion! He was at the rink several times a week throughout the season, but as soon as there was natural ice, the skating fever truly hit! With a few close friends, he embarked on long, unforgettable tours across frozen lakes and waterways.
From 1980 onwards, he took things more seriously and participated in alternative Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tours) in Canada and Austria. He also skated the real Friese Elfstedentocht no fewer than three times - and completed them all!
After his retirement, he continued to dedicate himself with boundless energy:
as a volunteer and skating coach at De Uithof in The Hague and for the Mini-Elfstedentocht,
where he even designed specific Elfstedentocht challenge objects.
He was also active for the natural ice club 'Hard gaat-ie' (He Goes Fast), and for the Westland Skating Museum.
He bought his very first camera with his very first salary - an investment that paid for itself many times over, as it served him wonderfully for almost twenty years! With enormous dedication, he used it to capture both precious family moments and impressive construction projects at his work at the Technical University. He usually developed his black-and-white photos at home, where the magic of the image slowly came to life in the darkroom.
But technology, of course, didn't stand still - and neither did he! He soon expanded his equipment with ever-improving cameras and lenses, focusing on macro photography and capturing parties and events in vibrant photo reports. He also volunteered as an editor for the local newspaper: he effortlessly combined his passion for photography with his talent for writing by producing both the photos and the accompanying articles.
He also experimented with stereo photography for several years - a fascinating technique that literally added depth to images. You'll find more wonderful examples of this technique at the back of his book.