Meintje Delisse graduated from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture in 2018 with her graduation project Campus Cultura. She is currently exhibiting her scale model and (part of) her impressive isometric drawing in the Schatkamer of the Burgerweeshuis building in Amsterdam.

Before the property development company BPD moved into the Burgerweeshuis at the beginning of 2018, this former orphanage designed by Aldo van Eyck stood vacant and forlorn in this lively part of Amsterdam. Meintje was inspired by her graduation project. The Burgerweeshuis: a dream of Aldo van Eyck from 1960, with which he wanted to offer orphans a ‘family’ by means of architecture. With its interior walkways, pavilions and patios, this dwelling felt like a small city. Can this building offer newcomers a visible place in the city in the very same way?

Campus Cultura, a meeting landscape for cultural riches
Campus Cultura is a roofscape that connects the Burgerweeshuis and the Tripolis office complex with each other.  A public world of cultural, educational and culinary facilities is located under this roofscape. The residents of the campus are (refugee) students from various cultural backgrounds. They will live in the towers and will be able to work, study and reside at the campus. As a visitor, you will come for language lessons, lectures, events, to have delicious food and to sample the wide variety of cultures. The customs, traditions, crafts, characteristics and idiosyncrasies, as well as the problems, of different continents will gain visibility here.

Campus Cultura will give these newcomers a place in the city, just as Aldo van Eyck wanted to offer orphans a ‘family’ with the Burgerweeshuis. “A good house is like a small city, a city like a large house”, according to Eyck. Campus Cultura is a large house and a small city.

Want to take a look? Click here for the possibilities and opening hours.
You can find more information about the graduation project of Meintje Delisse here.