Student - May 26, 2010

Fresh approach to Gaia and Lumen

The entrance to Gaia and Lumen could be a lot more exciting than it is at present, say second-year students of landscape architecture. And they have illustrated their point.

zuiverende_wandeling.jpg
'For various reasons, our students think the entrance in its current form is not appropriate', explains lecturer Paul Roncken. 'For example, it is not user-friendly, and it doesn't fir the university's image. Roncken put his students to work on a better idea. 'You can see it as unsolicited advice on improving the entrance.' The results were on display in Lumen last week.
 Laboratory
The exhibition is at the same time a plea to turn the campus into a landscape laboratory. Such a laboratory would provide students with a practical workplace and create scope for changing the look of the campus step by step, says Roncken. 'The students want to have a say and a terrain on which they can carry out assignments. We noticed that this had already been an issue for students for some time, so we took it up. In that sense, the exhibition is an invitation to the university to make use of our expertise.'
 Walk
The exhibition produced a winner too. Visitors could put a sticker on their favourite design. 'A refreshing walk' by Ineke van Kapel got 23 votes. 'Strictly separate' by Moniek Widdershoven was the runner-up with 13 votes. Van Kapel's design combines beauty with practicality in the form of water purification.