David van der Stel

Department: Man and Leisure
Website: www.davidvanderstel.nl

Helping kids to create

What can you do with PVC pipes, plungers, funnels and broomsticks? A lot, in the hands of David van der Stel. As a child, David longed to build his own contraptions but lacked the necessary materials. Or so he thought. In fact, building materials are all around us. You just need to be able to connect them. And so he created ‘Hackjes’: a kit of connectors and add-ons such as wheels, propellers and musical mouthpieces designed to ‘hack’ household goods in endlessly imaginative applications. These encourage creativity and active play in childhoods increasingly dominated by ready-made entertainment.