The campus will become more beautiful and greener in the coming years.
The D building will be demolished in 2022. In its place a building with only one floor will be built, underneath the raised ground that will be extended from the T building.
This is part of the proposal ‘Campus development Windesheim Zwolle up to 2035’, which has been presented to the Central Participation Council. The old D building is redundant and is used as a spare building now. After D has been demolished and the new floor has been laid underneath the green roof (the so-called ‘plint’ (EN: plinth), see illustration 1), there will be no need for new buildings on the campus for the time being.
Still there is a lot of construction work planned for the coming years up to 2025, these plans include a renewed campus to make it prettier, greener and safer regarding traffic.
The renovation of B and C are first on the agenda. In 2020 and 2021 these old buildings will receive a new façade (see illustration 2) and a climate control system, which will improve the comfort inside. The D building will be used temporarily during the renovation of B and C.
After the renovation the D building will be demolished in 2022. Building H, which only sees use for events, will be demolished that year as well. H is apparently in the way for the construction of a ring road for traffic around the campus. Where the H building is now, cars coming from the IJsselallee will turn onto the ring road in the future. The ring road starts behind the G, F and E buildings and connects to all the parking spaces.
Because of the construction of the ring road, it will be possible to make the street going through the campus completely car free and change it into a green slow traffic route.
The ring road and the new inner courtyard where D is currently situated, should be finished in 2024. The renovation of B and C will cost 15.3 million euro, the construction of the ring road is estimated to cost 3 million euro. For the other projects the estimations still need to be made. In total, 40 million is expected to be invested into housing in the coming years.
“Because of the construction of the ring road, it will be possible to make the street going through the campus completely car free”
Windesheim hopes that the municipality makes haste with the plan for a ‘fly-over’ slow traffic bridge over the IJsselallee to the campus (see illustration 3). If the construction of that bridge is quick, it will match up beautifully with the construction of the ring road and the green inner courtyard. The heart of the campus will eventually be the domain of pedestrians where the paths will get a park-ish character.
Plans have also been made for changes inside the buildings. Windesheim wants to have circular and sustainable buildings as much as possible. New measures for isolation and sustainability of the campus will be taken, like a possible connection to a geothermal heating grid and a solar park. Via the new ‘smart-building’ approach, more efficiency in housing will be reached through collecting all kinds of digital information.
Many classrooms will be adjusted to the new educational vision, in which community spaces and atmospheric learning environments play a big role.
Still a new D?
Is it sure that a new building will never be built on the place of D?
“You can’t look forward to 2035 with complete certainty, but we think a new building is not necessary. This is because the coming years we expect to have the same amount of students”, says manager real estate and facilities Dirk Pieter Halbesma. “The number of full-time students will decrease a small bit, but at the same time the number of part-time students and ad-students will increase. In the event of a small increase or decrease in student population, we will be able to cushion that perfectly fine.”
If the number of students decreases, the G building can be rented to third parties or be disposed of. If it increases, more classrooms will be made in G and the office space will be moved to rented office spaces in Hanzeland. “Only in the event of a 10 percent growth a new D building will be considered, we keep the option open to build something there eventually.”
Text: Ernest Mettes
Illustrations: Broekbakema Rotterdam
