leentje volker: facing the challenges of organising a competition
Facing the challenges of organising a competition – The Building for Bouwkunde case leentje volker
Introduction In the morning of 13 May 2008 a fire broke out in the Faculty of Architecture building of Delft University in the Netherlands. The Faculty of Architecture – generally known as “Bouwkunde”– is the largest faculty of Delft University of Technology and one of the largest in its field in Europe. Many students, alumni and staff members saw the building as a second home and a source of inspiration with consistent detailing and a sparkling atmosphere (Maandag, 2008). The fire started due to an electrical fault in one of the coffee machines. Because of its age the building was not equipped with sprinklers and when the fire service arrived they were ultimately unable to extinguish the fire. In both a material and an emotional sense, the destruction of the building was undoubtedly a major loss for the architectural community. The fire was widely covered in (inter)national newspapers and on television. Immediately after the fire, the Dean of Bouwkunde started preparations for a temporary accommodation campus for the several thousand students and over 600 employees of the faculty at Julianalaan in the northern part of the campus. In the meantime university staff and students of the Faculty of Architecture were housed in tents and at other faculties. Many employees and alumni were involved in the briefing, design and construction of the temporary housing project in the former main building of the university. The immense renovation of these head quarters was completed in December 2008 and required a great amount of workforce and energy in a short period of time. This created a positive chaos in which everything seemed possible. Soon after the fire, rumours started about the selection of an architect for a permanent new faculty building. Since European tender regulations apply for such projects, the Faculty and the architectural competitions – histories and practice
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