The redevelopment of a campus

A book on the redevelopment of campus Roeterseiland of the University of Amsterdam is just published by FifthMan[1].

As former commissioner I am very happy to have written the opening essay Time and the city campus:

• ‘The repair of the campus of the sixties must take into account the tension between the desire for identifiable, parochial space, and efficiency and scale. It should fulfil the longing for a campus as a place for students and staff to be, a place which fits into the tissue of the city, provides academic identity and functionality and which at the same time is financially viable. It should offer seclusion from the distractions of the city as well as being part of it.’
• ‘AHMM showed respect for Gawronski's heritage, but were courageous enough to make the bold interventions the university asked, like opening up the campus by revealing views along the canal from Roeterseiland into the surrounding neighbourhood. (…) Roeterseiland has become a most vibrant place and a true part of the city, where students and employees build on a new common tradition.’ (Time and the city campus, p.8)

'The book with a lot of drawings and pictures is the story of a twelve-year project by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects (AHMM) to remodel the university’s campus of the sixties into a connected city campus. Simon Allford wrote the essay: The treachery of images.

[1] https://www.fifthman.co.uk/minigraphs/university-of-amsterdam/