University of Amsterdam Unveils Fully Circular Project Spaces for Students

Part of the UvA building J/K on Roeterseiland campus has undergone a true metamorphosis. Here, 27 project spaces have been set up in recent months to enable students to work together. In this project, the UvA Library took the lead in cooperation with students. The design of the spaces was achieved using circular materials.

As many as 27 project rooms will soon be completed in the J/K building; on the first floor, the ground floor and the basement will also follow soon. Each room has its own look and differs in size. What they have in common is that they have been completely restyled with recycled materials.

Project rooms in the Library
Project rooms as well as study rooms can be found in various locations of the Library. But there appears to be a considerable shortage of project spaces. The education location building JK was partly made available to create new project spaces here, without altering the construction of the building.

Carpet with flaws
‘Everything in the spaces is circular: from the carpet, to the wallpaper and furniture,’ says Marloes van Wagtendonk Project Manager Innovative Learning Spaces at Campus Services University Library. For example, a batch of carpet with weaving faults has been cut up into a colourful mosaic of carpets, cleaned furniture and computer screens from other UvA locations are given a second life, and mirrors originating from a former Teylers Museum exhibition create a visually larger space. For discarded books from the Humanities collection, artist Tariq Heijboer was asked to give them a new life as wallpaper.

Students were also involved in this project. The research question that the Library put to the students of the Placemaking course was: what is needed to make the spaces fit students’ wants and needs? Placemaking students investigated this further and made recommendations based on this.

The spaces will be delivered in mid-October and students will be able to reserve them from that date.