In Oxford and Cambridge, higher education arose around the 13th century and has undergone major developments. One of the first colleges in Oxford was Balliol College started
as an act of charity in 1260 by the King of Scots, John Balliol, where Balliol housed poor students in a house rented by him (Jones, n.d.). Over the years, several colleges have
been built, each with its character and identity and mostly horizontally organised. These colleges are, sometimes, connected by footbridges but are mainly self-contained complexes.
The complexes are organised out of several courtyards to which university facilities are attached. The resulting colleges are introverted due to the courtyard-facing facades
that create close street frontages and have little connection with the public realm. Many campuses continued developing using the traditional layout and are mostly still segregated
from the surrounding city fabric. The densification of cities necessitates the integration of campuses into the city. This ensures that cities are open and more accessible and spaces
and programmes of the city and campus can reinforce each other and contribute to challenges within the society (den Heijer & Curvelo Magdaniel, 2018).
As an answer to the studio brief, the Temporary House of Representatives of The Netherlands in The Hague was selected as a project site for the new campus. This building is
an obsolete office building that is, due to its function, for many parts closed for the public. The new campus will accommodate lecture halls, workspaces, housing and other public
functions. These programmes have specific requirements and dimensions and therefore the building needs to be transformed. However, in The Hague’s densely built Central Innovation
District (CID) there is little room for a horizontal extension and creating a horizontally oriented campus as in Oxford. In fact, in the future, the Municipality of The Hague plans
to densify further the CID (Municipality of The Hague, 2021), leaving even less space for buildings and public spaces. On the other hand, it creates opportunities for more multi-use
high-rise buildings with different types of public programmes and spaces. Therefore, the campus needs to grow in height which causes implications for the more “traditional” circulation
patterns between different floors and functions within and around the campus. How can vertical circulation be created by breaking through the stacked floors as Musiatowicz
(2008) argues?
Additionally, at the moment the building of the Temporary House of Representatives of The Netherlands, colloquially named the Monkey Rock, is seen as a monotonous closed
structuralist building. Although the building has a distinct identity and is part of “the unity of the archipelago” (Koolhaas, 1994, p. 296), how can the new campus incorporate the
local identity which could be represented by the kiosk typology of The Hague, which is now lost in the high-density area?

The Master Thesis at TU Delft titled "The Marketplace of Ideas: Sharing and Discovery" proposes a vertical campus design developed within the Public Building Graduation Studio. This design introduces a university campus that is integrated into the cityscape of The Hague, suggesting an urban redevelopment and functioning as a public center of life. It creates a place where the public, industry, and politics intersect.

The project explores how does the change in tempo of movement and programs influence the design of spaces and vertical typology. It redefines speed and tempo in terms of learning trajectories in order to give a new identity to the 21st-Century Vertical Campus.

This thesis explores the rapidly changing landscape of education and the necessity for adaptable educational environments highlighting the stagnation in current educational systems, particularly universities, the study calls for a reevaluation of their societal roles. Universities have transformed into transnational bureaucratic corporations, contributing to advanced capitalism by commodifying education. The research is driven by primary and secondary questions focused on designing future-oriented educational systems and spaces. It examines the architect's role in these systems and the future role of university campuses. The methodology combines practical building analysis with theoretical research on educational systems, historical examination of education spaces, and current educational theories to predict future trends and propose a model for lifelong learning. Conducted within a studio project framework, the thesis involves designing a hybrid building for higher education in The Hague’s central area. Project aims to foresee the future of education and urban development, emphasizing architecture's role in addressing complex challenges. The proposed building design prioritizes adaptability and flexibility, aligning with the agenda of incorporating multiplicity in design to create resilient, transformative spaces. The relevance of the proposed university campus is underscored within broader social, professional, and scientific contexts. The strategic site at The Hague's Central Station involves repurposing an existing building (The Stichthage) to create an additional 30,000 square meters of space. This adaptive reuse approach minimizes CO2 emissions and material waste, enhancing sustainability. The architectural concept comprises two main components: the existing structure and a superstructure supported by four cores. The superstructure includes generic adaptable spaces, hybrid public spaces, and archival areas, forming an open architectural system designed to adapt to future uncertainties. Sustainability is a central focus, with passive ventilation systems and primarily timber construction. In conclusion, this thesis proposes a hybrid building for higher education that emphasizes adaptability and sustainability. By repurposing the existing building and creating flexible, transformative spaces, the project prepares for the evolving educational landscape. This model envisions a progressive educational building and establishes a framework for continual evolution, advocating adaptability as the future of architecture.

In the heart of The Hague, a city known for its blend of political significance and cultural diversity, lies a paradox wrapped in its urban fabric. The Central Station District, bustling with a melange of government employees, academics, and a vibrant student population, ironically plays host to a silent narrative of isolation amidst its diversity. This research peeks behind the urban curtains of this district, revealing how its inhabitants, despite their proximity, dwell in social silos, disconnected from the pulse of their community.
The project focuses on reimagining the Green Border area, stretching from the Bellevue complex to the UNICEF building on Bezuidenhoutseweg Street as a canvas for urban reinvention. Drawing inspiration from the enlightening works of Richard Sennett and Stavros Stavrides, the design proposal aims to create of ‘threshold spaces’ - dynamic arenas that defy conventional social hierarchies and ignite the spark of human connection within the Green Border. These spaces are not just physical locales, but melting pots of interaction, where the daily grind gives way to the magic of spontaneous encounters.
The methodological heartbeat of this venture is a fusion of qualitative insights, gleaned from interviews and observations, with the empirical rigor of quantitative data. This dual approach forges a path towards a vertical public hub that is more than just a structure; it’s a living, breathing embodiment of Herman Hertzberger’s vision of adaptive, evolving spaces. The design narrative is aiming to stitch together the urban tapestry of The Hague into a more inclusive, engaging, and connected community fabric.
In essence, this project is not just a blueprint for urban design; it’s a manifesto for social transformation. It’s an invitation to the residents of The Hague to step out of their bubbles, to explore, to engage, and to construct a richer, more vibrant urban life. This is a vision of a city where the architecture speaks not just to the skyline, but to the soul of its community.

Rather than completely redoing an existing building's architectural identity, the aim in this design was to amplify building characteristics and potential of its structure in a way that resonates more with the approach of sustainable urban development. The proposal touches upon the issue of vacancy within the city of The Hague through the application of adaptive reuse and therefore improving a building’s longevity. This intervention will breathe new life into its context and revitalizes a potentially vacant property, making it more adaptable to the changing needs.

Incorporating existing materials and components is a leading factor of this design, aligning with the goal of fostering the tactile core and grid system of the building. This goal emphasizes a sustainable method of designing buildings, where the need for reuse is recognized. The strategy of the additional voids uses absence of building to accentuate the existing building. These voids produce non-hierarchical spaces which support environments that are open and dynamic to the campus users. The design enhances the free flow of people and increases the exchange of knowledge by placing these voids in a overlapping order. This method makes sure that the architecture promotes communication and cooperation among its users in addition to fulfilling its functional role of letting light into the existing building.

Collectief demonstrates that architectural transformation is not limited to maintaining a building's historical and aesthetic qualities by rethinking the usage and interaction within the space. By demonstrating that contemporary interventions can live with and enrich the historical environment, this method broadens the scope of how we conceive about and carry out architectural alterations, resulting in creative spaces that are also reflective of their heritage. Architectural changes require more than just looking back at the past. They should utilize the past to be able to apply this into the current zeitgeist and sustainable future development .

This graduation project is part of the Public Building studio.
The studio has set the following assignment: Design a vertical campus within a hybrid building in the centre of the Hague. The design should encourage social interaction between different social groups.
This project also answers the design/research question: How can a vertical hybrid campus building enhance its porosity to promote increased public accessibility and foster social interaction?
You can find all the research input and output in the design journal.
The conclusion of the assignment and research question is the project. You can find it attached.

Shedding light on knowledge for a new vertical campus in the Hague

University Buildings play complex roles as public buildings. They provide a space for their primary goal of teaching, learning, and research to transfer knowledge while also contributing as a public space for interaction within the university and community and further with the society of the host city. The spatial configuration and relationship between the campuses and the city changed over time as the number of students increased and the city’s morphology developed. As the learning space on the campus includes not only closed classrooms and laboratories but also outdoor areas for transdisciplinary cross-fertilization, the sense of sharing public spatial configuration gives strong co-dependency between the university and the host city.

This project, "Shaping Public Consciousness; City Miniature of a Vertical Campus" is to create not only a building, but a place, where people and city streets connect by sharing and learning the knowledge and culture under its primary function as the campus. Spuiplein in Den Haag, the project site, has experienced drastic changes through continuous demolition to construct new high-rise towers with new characteristics. For an active city like Den Haag, the spaces between buildings are crucial for the quality of publicity as they form the social behavior and attention of the city. The project explores human-oriented public spatial configuration by integrating research-by-design principles that prioritize sensory engagement, spatial fluidity, and human-centered design by adapting phenomenological elements with the use of existing building.