A large increase in enrolled students, reduction in public involvement and funding, dated building stock and limited integration with corresponding cities are pressing challenges Dutch universities are facing. Furthermore, the characteristics of students and their ways of working evolving. All whilst the educational institutes in our growing knowledge-based society are transcending their traditional objectives. New solutions ought to be sought for these challenges. This thesis is a project that explores the design of a campus-like hybrid typology in an urban setting and proposes a framework for education.

The project locates itself in the administrative city of The Netherlands, The Hague. It’s centrally situated and is surrounded by ministerial institutes, the central station that functions as the city gate, and the old historic centre. The project’s formalisation is largely a result of critical contextual and programmatic analysis and aims to be responsive to both manners. Its central positioning and proposed urban routing reinforces the connection between project and city. The Framework for Education links the future city gate – which is the extension of the central station - with multiple city-scale facilities. The Framework for Education is a unified city block of partly revitalised entities and activates under-utilised urban realm.

The main entrance as the forecourt enhances under-utilized urban space and exchanges the current situation, an envelope almost being an impenetrable fortress, with a portal towards a realm that supports learning, fosters interaction, and actively promotes publicly accessible activities. Simultaneously extending the outdoor public space into the interior, enhancing the direct connection and circulation throughout the project. This is continued by the revitalisation of the city block its inner courtyard. The current situation, a car park, is exchanged with an inner garden that functions as the social heart of the city block, as it simultaneously takes play in a newly established urban axis.

The project proposes an educational system for the future. Here the educational institutes are considered societal exemplars. The future-proof educational institute continuously contributes towards solutions, instead of problems. Architecturally, this is formalised in adaptability. The project steers towards the creation of a system with low-embodied carbon. Realised through a structural framework of mass timber and concrete elements which creates the physical framework for the educational system, its interior spaces and its adaptable capabilities.

Theoretically, the project becomes a machine facilitating a programmatic infill in a moment of time. Simultaneously providing the ability to grow and adapt to whatever the educational system might become in the future. Architecturally the project reinforces the experimental nature of education and encourages creativity – being a continuous “work in progress”. Aligning with the project it’s contextual positioning, influenced by readings from R. Sennet that “the public realm is a continuous process”.