project F:Validators

Validation of our project via scenario writing

I love to go to the van de Vries park. It is pretty much the only large open green space in the area. But unlike the green strip in the campus, this park is luckily not only targeted towards students, but because of it's location and its connection to the city it's also part of our neighborhood. Every time I go there I meet new people because the park is actually used these days. And not see the same faces over and over again like before. Now people from the center come here too and students as well (it's hard not to run into them here, even when it's weekend, as many live in the area too...). And the park isn't just green space, but it's fun too if you think learning can be fun. All plants and trees have stories about who they are and where they came from and what they're connected to and who lives in them. It is an extension of the Botanical gardens, which I never used to go to as you had to pay and it closed. But this is at my own time and leisure :-)

What they've done is great. Water has finally returned to this in between area, and made the Poortlandplein a big deal more logical as before it was just a mess with traffic from all directions it's now simply all tunneled in manageable streams that don't act like an ant heap.

The functions wouldn't even be necessary for me. But it's good that they're there. It makes for a real interesting place! The things you can do there make it more attractive then a simple 'green space' with some water and trees that a lot of the residents would be just happy with. But this really attracts people for a more (I wouldn't say crowded because of all the available space) but active... it attracts different people to here. People I would probably have not seen otherwise.

The bar / bistro where you can get your morning coffee and a read, the cafeteria where I can get my good meals (I'm a single man, so I don't like to cook really) are pretty general places, but the way they designed it makes you think. If you really want to be alone, that's possible, but not easy. Everything is geared towards mingling and interacting. From the colors of the furniture to the way they are directed and shaped to create larger clusters and long tables instead of your standard tables everywhere with some chairs to have very small groups of people. It is different every time I come here, as if it were part of some system. If you want to be here, you will probably have to 'join' somewhere. It makes for fun conversations and I meet people I wouldn't have talked to otherwise really. Like students.

These places are all within one like... dome. If you come in for something, you come by other places and activities. It's almost like an airport where it's all mixed: the relaxing and the shops and museums and information places. Here it's like that too. The exposition of and about the TU is all throughout this place, outside, on the walls, the floors, the ceilings, upstairs. But because it's make pretty compact unlike an airport the people are also kind of compacted. I've been asked now several times by someone standing next to me what I thought of this or that. I suppose it helps that a lot of these things are interactive, and you have to do something to participate (with your random neighbor). I don't go to all the things here, as I don't have a need to go to a lecture hall, but when all the students come out and stick around it does buzz up the place and creates a certain curiosity in many people that are around that want to know what they did in there. Which they can check out, something that is encouraged to do.

Ben Peters, resident, north east of the park.

I am so glad that this park is finally here, I need a good continuous line of trees to find my way and live in. This is now connected to the rest of the city as never before. Also the surface water attracts insects that I eat. It's been an improvement all around

bat that lives in the area.

I hardly ever used to go into the park, during the summer it was always dead quiet (apart from the very noisy traffic), a pretty good place to read actually... I never stayed after school, I just used to go home. The Bouwpub behind the school is separated from everything. It is a brick hole where you can sit on a few boulders or chairs outside in the parking lot... Not really attractive if you ask me.

Now there is this larger covered space with lots of things to do and see in the park where all the traffic has been removed. The park now literally comes into our building from the front like at Harvard university square. But we have this multipurpose functional thing there, I doesn't really look like anything, but it looks interesting. Probably something Hyperbody... They do the non-standard and interactive stuff. I never really got it, but I like how this one works. The outside flows into the building and is part of the main route through the park. The whole thing is public and the continuous space outside some of the specific functions are full of interactive TU art and games and projects and things to do with other people. Things that are fun for me and apparently also locals as definitely not everybody is a student in this place... But then again, it's not geared specifically to us. The park is an urban city community park where I now see loads of people in the spring, summer and fall now. Even in winter the water sometimes freezes over and people skate on it (students and residents), and local kids have snowball fights. The fact that the park alone attracts all these people is added to the people that come here for what the pavilion has to offer.

I mostly love the spaces that aren't really anything, here you can do what you want really. It facilitates almost any activity and has this computer generated projection hologram thing that's just cool to play with. The whole concept of this place is to mingle and not do anything just alone. It says so on the walls... play, interact, don't be shy, ask. All these (be it projected) people that talk to each other, mingle and give the example they want us to follow. It breaks a subtle barrier. I've talked to many people already. It's quite interesting to have these places for idea sharing, discussion and just having fun. The Wii and Kinect are simple interactive games you can play in the in between spaces where everybody can see you and can participate for example. I've played complete strangers and had great fun :-)

Afterwards you can have a drink with these people in the bar. It's one of the connections from the inside to the park. And because it is a part of the TU and in some ways an extension of the Bouwpub the drinks are cheap. Which attracts locals as well as students from around the area. It's a lot more of a happening place as I think the Bouwpub ever was...

Also car parking is a big deal for me. I commute, and the fact that there are more parking spaces now is a welcome change as the parkinglot was often full. The fact that it is connected to the pavilion makes for even more people coming through it and sticking around.

Lianne Derks, architecture student, from Leiden