FORSCHUNGSFELDER MASTER. WS2017 + SS2018 Prüfung: Univ Prof. Sabine Brück, Prof.i.V. Ir. Fred Humblé Betreuung: Ir. Ing. Architekt Bas van der Pol (bvanderpol@bauplan.arch.rwth-aachen.de) Ir. René Daniels (ehemalige Stadtbaumeister Antwerpen und ehemalige Haubt der Städtbaueliche Dienst Maastricht, Direktor BURO5). Sprache: English. REALITY NOW! HEALING THE CAMPUS, MAASTRICHT [NL] [D: Den Campus genesen. ] v. 03.10.2017 Theme of the Project In the Western World education has evolved within of monasteries for many centuries. They were secluded exclusive, inward oriented domains, organised around a courtyard. The building structures surrounding these courtyards usually formed a strong boundary toward their surroundings and thus created a protected environment for learning and study. Within these environments knowledge transfer remained within the monastic order or at least within the church that governed them. This situation lasted until the end of the middle ages when monasteries began opening up for secular apprentices. Many monasteries began offering specific boarding facilities for the apprentices and so emerged colleges as we can see famously in Oxford and Cambridge. The campus as spatial structure for educational environments emerged as universities were founded in the new world of North America at the end of the 18th century. Here universities could acquire enough cheap land on the outskirts of the emerging towns. The campus-typology is defined by an open structure of freestanding buildings, often organised around an open field or lawn. Usually this lawn was conveniently scaled and this structure of freestanding buildings and open fields is simply repeated as the campus grows. These spacious, green environments have without a doubt helped build the reputation of American universities as excellent environments for science and learning.
As a result of the increased wealth and mobility of the general population, during the 1950 s many companies began displacing their headquarters or production facilities away from the congested city centres. Many adopted the campus-typology for their new headquarters in an effort to express luxury and healthy working environments. In America more than in Europe this strategy is still relevant as recent projects for campuses by Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple show. In Europe the development of campuses has gone through different stages as well. Like in America a large number of campuses was built during the 1950 s and 1960 s for universities and companies fleeing the congesting cities. They followed the very modernist idea compact buildings in the green. However very often the construction of these campuses was totally completed. A rather strong countermovement emerged during the 1970 s against modernism and managed to stop many campuses from being completed. Sometimes for decades these campuses remained uncomplete, mono-functional and sometimes rather lifeless environments exclusively used by students and university staff. Nowadays the campus as spatial structure has met a serious revival. As a consequence of a rather fundamental change of the economy towards a system of production based on services, creativity and technological innovation throughout Europe campuses are being redeveloped or even newly built. The reputation of some of the North American campuses surely is of strong influence for this trend: Sillicon Valley where we can find places like Stanford University are important inspirations for policymakers and urban planners. They continuously praise the opportunities these campuses offer for technological innovations and successful transfer from science to business development and try to copy these examples. It is in light of this trend that in the Dutch province of Limburg, local policymakers are currently trying to revive 4 campuses. They have launched an initiative called Brightlands. This is a platform in which campuses in Venlo, Heerlen, Sittard-Geleen and Maastricht can cooperate and attune their strategies. The idea is that they can determine their respective specializations and develop strategic cooperations instead of becoming each other s competitors. In Maastricht the Brighlands-initiative aims at reviving the Randwyck campus and generate new social and economic support for the development of the remaining vacant building sites. The Randwyck campus was initiated during the 1980 s. Maastricht had become a university city at the end of the seventies because of the need for improvement of local healthcare. A medicine faculty and an academic hospital formed the base of Maastricht s new university. Ofcourse for the building of these expensive infrastructures the city and the university needed to raise funds. The plan from the outset was to plan a university campus at the edge of the city. But until this idea could be realized the university decided to temporarily occupy vacant buildings (mainly monastaries) in the historic towncentre of Maastricht. The planningprocess for the new hospital and campus took longer then expected and the university grew very successfully, occupying more and more historic buildings in the towncentre. When time came to displace the university to its new campus, local policymakers and the board of the university met very strong resistance. In the end only the faculties of medicine and psychology were housed at Randwyck: the rest of the university kept on developing into what architect Jo Coenen and Hans Beijer later dubbed The Urban Campus. And although several parts of the Randwyck campus, or Maastricht Healthcampus as it is now named, were further developed with mainly office blocks, big parts of the campus remained vacant, generating the above described typical monotonous and lifeless environment we saw on many unfinished campuses throughout Europe before the renewed interest in these terrains started transforming them. Aim of this Project The Brighlands organisation is a partnership between the local provincial government, the town councils of the cities involved and local universities and colleges. It is their ambitions and their aim for economic and financial gain that guided the direction into which these campuses are being developed. It is striking however how little consideration/attention is payed tot he wishes and needs of the daily users of the campuses or the inhabitants of the surrounding city. This project first of all aims at developing, through a series of analysis, surveys and interviews with users, a thorough understanding of the real needs of the surrounding city, it s inhabitants and the users of the Maastricht Healthcampus. Henceforth this project aims at generating a proposal for an improved urban plan for the development of the campus. Proposals for the vacant building sites as well as solutions for existing spatial, infrastructural and functional problems of the campus should be proposed.
Method Projectphases 1. OBSERVATION - Urban designer and architect René Daniëls will give about the history of Maastricht and Randwyck. - Students will explore the Randwyck/Maastricht Healthcampus and its direct surroundings by foot. They will make a detailed report in text, photographs and sketches of what they encounter. Their effort will be guided towards making a map of good and bad aspects of the campus: aspects to reinforce and aspects to improve. - For this survey the students will be teamed up to a group of students of Maastricht University that actually use the campus on a daily basis. All students are encouraged to interview and interact with local inhabitants and other usergroups as well. - The group of students will be divided into 3 or 4 smaller groups to make a more detailed survey of a designated part of the campus. - An largescale model, a maquette, of Randwyck will be build and will function as a tool to understand the campus. This model will function as a platform for discussion with the students of Maastricht University aswell. - This project will be strongly based on teamwork. Its results will be a teameffort. 2. UNDERSTANDING - The surveyed carried out during the first weeks will be extended by a profound spatial analysis. Some of the themes to be analysed will be: - position in the city - orientation / relief / visibility - urban structure (buildingmass) - infrastructure - landownership - borderzones and connections with the surroundings - functions - architecture - design of the public space - vegetation (green spaces) etc. - Students will present their findings in a series of maps, diagrams and spatial representations (sketches/photocollages/etc.). The students from Maastricht University will function as a feedback group. 3. DESIGN - The student group will develop, with help of the large model of the site, to develop a new urban design. The goal of this design-phase will be to generate a new development strategy for Randwyck. 4. PRESENT - The final weeks of the course will be consecrated to the creation of a clear presentation of the new design strategy for the Maastricht Healthcampus. This presentation will encompass: - a summary of the site-exploration (photo s, sketches, diagrams), - a summary of the spatial analysis (maps, diagrams), - an altered version of the site model, - some photographic representations of the future situation. Intensity This is a Forschungsfelder course. It is a 3 ECTS / 2 SWS course. It will be a group-project. Planning Students will be guided on Thursdays from 12:30 until max. 18:00h in room R016 (Lehrgebiet Bauplanung und Baurealisierung) on the ground floor of the RWTH Architecture faculty. PART 1: OBSERVATION 01 Kw40: Mi., 04.10.17: Vorstellung of Mastercourses. 02 Kw41: Do., 12.10.17: 12:30u Startup presentation. 13:00u Lecture René Daniëls: The history of Maastricht Randwyck. Distribution of tasks regarding the building of the sitemodel. Homework: building the sitemodel.
03 Kw42: Do., 19.10.17: 12:30u-17:00u Group-Excursion to Maastricht / Randwyck. Startingpoint: centrall hall of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. The bus from Aachen to Maastricht will stop in front of the museum. Homework: building the sitemodel. 04 Kw43: Do., 26.10.17: 12:30u Presentation Bas van der Pol How to make a spatial analysis. Groupdiscussion of first observations. Homework: building the sitemodel. PART 2: UNDERSTANDING 05 Kw44: Do., 02.11.17: 12:30u second exploration together with students of Maastricht University Homework: Spatial Analysis. 06 Kw45: Do., 09.11.17: 12:30u Analysis-report: presentation of preliminary results of the analysis. 07 Kw46: Do., 16.11.17: 12:30u Groupdiscussion with students of Maastricht University. 08 Kw47: Do., 23.11.17: Weiße Woche (no classes). 09 Kw48: Do., 30.11.17: KOLLOQUIUM 1 12:30u Analysis-report: presentation of preliminary results of the analysis (the analysis will be continued during the designprocess). PART 3: DESIGNING 10 Kw49: Do., 07.12.17: 12:30 Groupdiscussion about first design ideas (every student should bring ideas in sketches and drawings). 11 Kw50: Do., 14.12.17: - (guidance upon request) 12 Kw51: Do., 21.12.17: KOLLOQUIUM 2 12:30u Design-report: presentation of preliminary design ideas. 13 Kw52: Di., 26.12.17: - (guidance upon request) 14 Kw27: Di., 02.01.18: 12:30 Groupdiscussion about the design. 15 Kw28: Di., 09.01.18: - (guidance upon request) 16 Kw29: Di., 16.01.18: 12:30 Groupdiscussion about the design. 17 Kw30: Di., 23.01.18: - (guidance upon request) PART 4: PRESENTATION 18 Kw31: Di., 30.01.18: 12:30 Groupdiscussion about the design and final presentation. 19 Kw32: Di., 06.02.18: - (guidance upon request) 20 Kw33: Di., 13.02.18: FINAL KOLLOQUIUM. 12:30u Final evalution of survey, analysis and design. Final evaluation documents - Only vertical DIN A0 Papers are allowed, - Maps, diagrams, plans and sections, photos and photographic collages, - Sitemodel with clear distinction between existing and new buildings. Images On the next page.
1. 2. Maps of Maastricht with location of Maastricht Randwyck (Maastricht Healthcampsu) and Maastricht Ubran Campus. Randwyck aerial photo.
Randwyck Masterplan by Ungers (partially executed). New masterplan for Randwyck / Maastricht Healthcampus by Maastricht municipality.