A real student village is being built on the TU/e campus. Work is in progress on two residential towers with a total of 735 student quarters that should be ready in no time, thanks to special techniques.
Besides housing, the student village will include a public workshop, a meeting place, and other facilities. These will be developed together with the students. Because the village will be built with prefab elements, the job will be done quickly. Prefab elements are actually a kind of ready-made building blocks. The walls, floors, and windows of the buildings are pre-assembled in the factory and then transported to the construction site.
Veldhoven
“We draw out the walls ourselves at the level of elements that we can produce in one piece,” says Patrick Tops, Byldis project manager, which makes the prefabricated elements in its own factory in Veldhoven. “Then those elements are produced in our own molds. This cuts the construction time about in half,” Tops said.
Housing shortage
This kind of quick-construction housing helps combat the housing shortage. Still, according to Roy Beijnsberger, general manager of Woonbedrijf, many more student housing units are needed. “With these 735 homes, we are really making a significant contribution to the housing shortage among students, but we are far from the goal. Students are on waiting lists for a long time, which is very annoying. We are therefore constantly looking at opportunities in the market and where we can possibly build additional student housing.”
Starting next spring, students can apply for the rooms. By the summer of 2024, the student village should be ready.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.
