Dutch Change 2023

Building for Science and Learning

Multidisciplinary education and multi campus are the buzz words in university’s future scenarios, but what are the spatial implications and potentials of this? How does the ongoing digitalization affect the spaces in which we learn and research? How can a building for higher education be well embedded in its direct surroundings and at the same time function in a regional network? How can it become an asset to reach out to new groups of students?

In fall 2023, the Complex Projects MSc1 studio focused on the architecture of ‘buildings for science and learning’ in the context of the Dutch Delta. In the southwest part of the Randstad region, the ambition of TU Delft is on future expansion within the city of Rotterdam and with Erasmus University and Erasmus MC. A promising field for conversion is medicine and technology and a promising site for projecting a new multi-disciplinary education building is the West Flank area in the city of Rotterdam. Aiming to connect the changing world of science and higher education with the urban challenges of a harbour area in transition, students designed a single building or small group of buildings for a combined medical technology curriculum in the western flank of Rotterdam.

Following collective research on the city and the changing educational and scientific landscape, students proposed buildings for med-tech education, research and entrepreneurship in the areas of the Waalhaven Distrct and the Delfshaven.