Visual quality campus UTwente reconsidered

Authors

  • Joost Emmerik
  • Evelien van Es
  • Lara Voerman

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/overholland.2023.22.245

Abstract

There is probably no university campus in the Netherlands about which more has been drawn and written than that of the University of Twente (UT). The establishment of the first and only true campus university in the Netherlands, located on a 150-hectare wooded site between Hengelo and Enschede, resulted in a rapid succession of master plans and visual quality plans. In addition, numerous articles, books and a dissertation have been published. This interest is not without reason.
First of all, the history of the origins of what would become the third technical college in the Netherlands is of particular interest for the development of higher education due to its experimental nature. Secondly, hidden amongst the greenery are some of the most evocative architectural structures from the 1960s and 1970s, such as De Boerderij (The Farm) by Piet Blom, the Chemical Engineering building by Samuel van Embden and Jacques Choisy and a small canteen building by Joop van Stigt. Then there are the special student housing projects, including the mastabas, pyramids and patio complex designed by Herman Haan.
Thirdly, since the construction of the campus in the 1960s, the immediate surroundings have changed to such an extent that the campus can no longer be regarded as an independent entity. Since the rapprochement between the university and the adja cent business park at the end of the last century, the municipality of Enschede and the university have developed a coherent spatial development concept.

How to Cite

Emmerik, J., van Es, E., & Voerman, L. (2023). Visual quality campus UTwente reconsidered. OverHolland, 14(22), 111–141. https://doi.org/10.7480/overholland.2023.22.245

Published

2023-11-22

Issue

OverHolland 22

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Joost Emmerik, Evelien van Es, Lara Voerman

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Joost Emmerik

Joost Emmerik (1979) studied Urbanism at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. As a garden and landscape architect, he uses robust materials and lush planting to create places that become more exuberant over time. Since 2022, he is head of the Landscape Architecture master’s programme at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. He is also a member of the Talent Development Committee of The Creative Industries Fund.

Evelien van Es

Evelien van Es studied art history at VU Amsterdam. She was curator for the collection of the Netherlands Architecture Institute and guest lecturer at the Architecture Department of TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture. In 2003, she founded a Rotterdam research office. She advises in the field of cultural heritage, publishes articles on a variety of topics and works as an architectural history advisor at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.

Lara Voerman

Lara Voerman (1982) is an architectural historian. She writes about architecture, city and landscape. Using history as a starting point, she advises on the future of an area or a building. Clients include the Atelier Rijksbouwmeester, the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the municipality of Rotterdam and the Dudok Architectuur Centrum. Lara is author of Dudok by Iwan Baan (2021) and Wonderlijkheden. Willem Marinus Dudok. Netwerken en inspiratiebronnen (2019) and co-author of, among others, De nieuwe grachtengordel. De realisatie van het Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam (2017) and De Deltawerken (2017).