Delta kicks off its latest housing series with House Beun. Thirteen students of different athletic disciplines do everything together: cook, eat, do sports, and have fun.
Bob, Wouter and Fleur (from left to right) preparing vegetarian shawarma wraps: “For dinner, we have to triple the recipe.” (Photo: Sam Rentmeester)
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- Address: Oude IJsbaan, Delft
- Number of residents: 13
- Shared rooms: Bathroom, kitchen, common room
- Rent: EUR 330 – 450 depending on room size
- Landlord: DUWO
- How to get this house: Residents’ votes
- Communal activities: Cooking, house nights, athletic training, certain competitions
“House Beun is an official ‘Top Sports’ house,” says Fleur Cluistra, who is 21 and studies Technology, Policy, and Management at TU Delft. “This is in the contract, and it is a requirement to live here. You need an NOS*NSF (Nederlands Olympisch Comité/Nederlandse Sport Federatie) certificate to prove you are a elite athlete, or you need a referral from Laga or Proteus that you row at the highest level.” Fleur, one of 13 housemates at House Beun, is one of the competitive rowers at Proteus. Fleur is joined by Wouter van der Avoird, 20, who studies Industrial Design, and Bob van Daal, 22, who studies Applied Earth Sciences.
The common room is typical of a student house: several comfy couches are arranged around a television. A projector hangs above for house nights and Netflix bingeing. The television shows a slideshow of pictures of the 13 housemates partaking in various activities, all with smiles on their faces. Above the dining table hang party banners, the remains of various celebrations at House Beun. The highest wall in the common room, originally painted white, is covered from floor to ceiling in quotes from the housemates, quotes that housemates find funny and that reflect life in House Beun.
Fleur, Wouter, and Bob are preparing vegetarian shawarma wraps. “We eat a lot here,” said Fleur. “For dinner, we have to triple the recipe.” Bob added, “Reasonably healthy food, and vegetarian, always.”
The house nights at House Beun get very creative
One major detail sets House Beun apart from the other student houses: there are almost no bottles of alcohol anywhere to be seen, empty or full. “You have to be sporty to live here,” said Wouter, “but if you only focus on sports, we wouldn’t think you’d fit in here. We like people who take the initiative and actually join in and participate actively as members of our house. We are a crazy house, and a close house, and we really value that.”
The house nights at House Beun get very creative. “Last year for Easter, we had a housemate that hid candy eggs all over the house,” recalled Fleur. “But he didn’t do it just for a house night. You could find candy eggs at any time, anywhere.” This led to one of their most memorable activities, which Bob told Delta about. “The 13 of us paired up, and one person was inside the house, blindfolded and with headphones on, and the other one was outside. They FaceTimed each other, and the one outside had to guide the one inside where to look for hidden Easter eggs only through what he or she could see on FaceTime.”
The House Beun housemates play together, and work together. Fleur recalled a very victorious moment for House Beun. “On our last day of rowing, we decided to compete as a house and we were actually first out of 17 boats, even beating boats with even more senior rowers. Our time was just above six minutes. It felt great that we could do that as a house and not as a team that had trained together, and we think we may be the only house in the whole country that can do that.”
“We were 16 hands on one body!” exclaimed Wouter.
Gabriela Godlewski / Freelance journalist
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