Students present ideas for Delft Draait Door

Over the past few weeks, Building Technology students were at work in Delft's Buitenhof district. Their assignment was to talk to local experts within the neighbourhood and then come up with an innovative project that would also serve a social function.

An important aim of the chosen approach was also to introduce the students to the challenges in the Buitenhof area. The core values within the innovative ideas were to contribute to a sustainable and healthy neighbourhood.  

The students dealt with the topics and designs listed here and presented them during the meeting with residents and experts:

1. The Culture 'House' Reimagined: deals with food production and consumption in the neighbourhood. Here, the students devised a walking route through the neighbourhood that deals with the cycle of food production and consumption. They also designed a building, fitting into the landscape, where social enterprises and residents of the neighbourhood can organise various activities and events.
2. Buitenhof Re-Composed: this group dealt with the function of music within the neighbourhood. In doing so, they came up with a proposal for music as a connecting factor in the neighbourhood by designing a central pavilion with sliding walls in the outdoor space. This allows the pavilion to take different forms and functions for the neighbourhood.

3. 'Start-Up' 'Ground-Up' Chopin Avenue 3: This project is about how start-ups could be integrated around Chopin Avenue. Here, the students designed a construction that both gives start-ups a place within the neighbourhood but also has a social function for the residents of the flat.
4. Neighbours 'Year' - Festival Village: here we looked at how to apply a festival idea and approach permanently to the neighbourhood. Here, the aim is to create festival sites that provide both permanent social functions for residents and the space to host larger social events.
5. The Red & Green Villages 'Twinned': Innovative Student Housing: in this project, the students explored where there is space in the outer court to connect the neighbourhood from The Green Village.  They investigated whether such a concept is also possible in the outer court and what it will look like. In doing so, they also looked at whether a new form of student housing could be realised.

More information

• The students were following the SWAT studio and were supervised by Craig Martin and Peter Teeuw.
• Delft Draait Door is an event where students, experts and local residents come together and an initiative of the City Deal Kennis Maken Delft. Within this Delft City Deal, the city's knowledge institutions work together with the municipality on important issues. Knowledge institutions are ROC Mondriaan, Haagse Hogeschool, InHolland and TU Delft.
• Also read earlier interview about Delft City Deal. (Dutch only)