EEMCS seemed ready for demolition, but is now on its way to become listed

An important landmark and striking colours. The Cultural Heritage Agency (in Dutch) is considering making the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) a listed building. This would give the building maximum protection so that it remains for future generations, says the Agency.

At 90 metres tall, it is the second highest building in Delft (the Nieuwe Kerk church is 18.75 metres hoger) and the Cultural Heritage Agency says that it is an important landmark on the TU Delft campus. “The building is visible from a wide area and the clock on the side is even legible from Delft’s city centre.” The building was designed in the 1960s by Geert Drexhage, was completed in 1972, and declared a municipal monument in 2009.

‘Pioneer role’

The EEMCS building is also significant symbolically and historically. The Agency pointed to the ‘pioneering role’ that the then Technical University of Applied Sciences (TH, now TU Delft) had during the building’s construction in the 1960s. The high birth rate after the Second World War meant that more people went to higher education and the TH had to expand. This led to the building of EEMCS.

‘I hope TU Delft is happy with it’

Wido Quist (Associate Professor of Heritage and Architecture at the Architecture and the Built Environment Faculty) worked to protect the building as the Chair of Docomomo for more than 10 years. “Our efforts are now recognised by the nomination of EEMCS as a listed building.”

Why does Quist believe that the building should be protected? “It is one of the first high-rise buildings in this style in the Netherlands. The smooth transparent façade, the outdoor paving that smoothly transitions indoors, the amount of glass that goes all the way to the floors …” Quist could continue for a long time. “I hope TU Delft is happy with this nomination and sees it as recognition. It is an opportunity to put architecture in the spotlight.”

Post-65

Apart from the Faculty at TU Delft, there are another 14 buildings nominated as listed buildings, including the former head office of the Centraal Beheer insurance company in Amersfoort and the city hall in Terneuzen that closely resembles the Aula at TU Delft. They are all so-called Post-65 works from the period 1965-1990.

‘Many buildings from that period were considered ready for demolition. Our answer was to wait’

The Agency says that this was the start of a ‘completely new generation of historic buildings’. Compared to the existing listed buildings, they are relatively new. Protection is needed to enable people in the future to continue to appreciate them, is the Agency’s thought.

A spokesperson says that many of these buildings are reaching the end of their first life cycle. “Many buildings from that period were considered ready for demolition. Our response then is: wait. We first want to save the pearls among them.” The Agency wants to protect about 150 sites.

Demolition

The spokesperson from the Agency says that the buildings on the list can only get listed if there is enough support to keep them ‘alive’. This was not always the case for the EEMCS building. In 2019 the Executive Board decided that the building should be demolished (in Dutch) and be replaced by a new build. This did not happen. What did happen was that a few years later, a few of the floors of the high rise were temporarily emptied because of fire hazard. A major renovation then followed, after which the whole building could be occupied again.

Whether the nomination results in recognition is not yet certain

The demolition was postponed by at least five years. Whether the postponement will turn into retaining the building is still in the air. The TU Delft spokesperson does say that the demolition plans are ‘no longer on the table’. As an aside, the building was always a municipal monument which means that demolition could only be done with the permission of the municipality. If EEMCS does become a listed building, this remains the case.

Now is the start of a new process

Whether the nomination ends up in protection is as yet uncertain. An Agency spokesperson says that at the moment the list is only a pre-selection. “A new process will start now in which we discuss the issue with a lot of people. So it could still be the case that, in light of the discussions, we will not make it a listed building.”

EEMCS would not be the first faculty to become a listed building: the neighbouring Mechanical Engineering building already has that status, as do Architecture and the Built Environment and the Aula.