Jan’s perspective

De Uithof

I never studied in the city centre. As a scientist, De Uithof was always my natural habitat. De Uithof — I think you’re supposed to call it Science Park these days, not much of an improvement to me — could still be a bit disdained at the time (early this century). It was a remote enclave, a bit like the way they used to keep the lepers outside the city gates.

I never got that. I love De Uithof. (You can put Science Park on all the exit signs on the ring-road around it, but that’s not going to change a thing). I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a Garden of Eden, but I do have some divine memories of that time. The sandwiches from Tricolore. The extremely overpriced Spar. De Uitwijk cultural centre, where I noticed a large group of people staring in the same direction in September 2001, just before a plane crashed into the second WTC tower on the small television screen two minutes later.

De Uithof underwent a real transformation during my years as a student. It was where all the innovation took place. Everything you couldn’t do in the city turned out to be possible at De Uithof: lofty tower blocks for students. Wonderful new University buildings. A huge library. (Where the toilets always smelled, I should add — that’s what happens if you don’t put in any windows. And with lighting behind the toilet bowls and stall doors made of frosted glass, you could tell by the shadow who wiped their bum sitting or standing).

Nowadays, the concrete and brick designs by Kruyt and Langeveld (they’ll probably start calling themselves Gunpowder and Longfield soon) stand alongside the red millennium stucco of the Minnaert building and the gleaming glass and steel structures built after I left. The University’s motto used to be ‘science is never finished’, and De Uithof embodies that message to this day. The name Science Park might seem to imply a place to park science, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: it’s an extremely dynamic environment. I still feel at home every time I park my bike there — the kids’ seats on my handlebars are the only reminder of the passing years.

Jan Beuving

Jan studied at Utrecht University for nine years, completing a Bachelor’s programme in Mathematics (2008) and a Master’s programme in the History and Philosophy of Science (2009). After that, he became a comedian and cabaret artist. See janbeuving.nl for his performance schedule.

image Maartje ter Horst