Mathematics and Computer Science have moved

It’s a bit spooky, the empty rooms with a little dirt on the floor in the highrise of the Electro building. The floors 4 till 8, 11, 12, 19 and 20 are completely empty. The rehousing went well. “We had a prosperous move. This is because of the good preparation and having a good expectation”, says Erik de Vos, facility manager at EWI and project adviser.

Cosy building
Gezellig is how the employees call the new building. “You meet each other in the hallway”, says Joost Broekens, lecturer in Computer Science. “Because of the open spaces and the stairs in the middle, the building is a lot more social than the long hallways in the highrise.”

“It’s more transparent, you can look into all of the rooms. The old building felt like a hospital. Now it doesn’t feel so isolated anymore and you have more conversations”, is also what Georgios Gousios thinks. He worked in the old building for five years.

Too small and a bad restaurant

“At this moment it looks fine, it’s nice and has a sleek design. Although I think the building will be too small in the future, because the department of Computer Science is growing”, says Gousios. Ruud de Jong, who is working for the technical department, agrees. “The offices, the labs, the storage, everything is a lot smaller than the highrise. That is a disadvantage, because there are a lot of things. Some people have given in a lot of space.” What Gousios misses the most is a good restaurant. “This restaurant is bad; they have not a lot of choice and not a lot of space to sit.” And they miss the students. “We see our colleagues more, but there is less contact with students.” Roy Amirullah, working for the service point in the old building likes the students a lot. “The contact with students is what makes my work fun. I will miss that in the new building.”

Demolish or not?

Besides some small things – missing switches in the automated building, lights that don’t turn on, a sink that isn’t finished yet, a door from a meeting room that won’t open – it looks like a good building. “The old building also had its disadvantages”, says Broekens. “It was single glass, it was leaking, sometimes the heater was making a lot of noise but cold air came out.”

If the old building will be demolished, is not entirely sure. Wido Quist from Docomomo and Norman Vervat from Het Cuypersgenootschap both have outed their worries separately. Docomomo came with a petition against the demolishment (that is not closed yet) and Het Cuypersgenootschap made a press release about the subject.

Icon of delft

“The building has a big iconic value, it is even a municipal monument”, says Norman Vervat. “Highrise buildings from that time are spare in the Netherlands. In that era, the Dutch were not building that many highrise buildings if you compare it with Germany. And not a lot of them are still standing.” “In that time, it was masterpiece”, adds Wido Quist. “It is special that a faculty went working vertically, over different floors.” “You are also not bringing down the old city hall or the Old Church?” Asks Vervat himself. About the beauty of the building the opinions differ. “The skyline of Delft would be more beautiful without the highrise”, says employee Georgios Gousios. “This is the TU building people see from the highway”, says Roy Amirullah of the service point. “Some people think this is the main office. It would be a pity if it is brought down.” “It has a nostalgic value, I studied there, but I don’t think the building is particularly pretty”, says Broekens.

If the building is nice to work in or that it has to be conserved, are two different things. Vervat explains: “Of course we understand that there are defects and the building does not meet the wishes of the employees. It is not said that conserving the building means that nothing will change. You can change the problems while you try to keep the outside as good as possible.” He thinks the TU has to be an example for other companies in this case. “In the whole country old office buildings are renovated. It would be a pity if the TU is not repurposing their buildings. We are convinced that we can do something more with it, and the TU has the knowledge to do that.”

The discussion if the highrise will be renovated or demolished has been going on for a long time. Some articles from our archive (in Dutch)

• Renoveren of niet? Puzzelen aan EWI (12 oktober 2015)
• Studenten ontwerpen nieuw EWI (9 februari 2017)
• Waar gaat het heen met EWI? (8 november 2017)
• WI van EWI verhuist (21 december 2017)

Roos van Tongeren / Redacteur