Maastricht University in the Netherlands is a popular destination for students and scientists looking to progress their academic careers. The university has been growing for many years and now has more than 21,000 students and almost 5,000 staff members. To meet future demand, the university needed to expand its estate through adaptive reuse of heritage buildings.
By acquiring the Tapijnkazerne—a neighboring former army barracks—the university saw an opportunity to provide much-needed capacity for an additional 1,000 students and 20 staff. However, the site’s aged design and accommodation were not aligned with the university’s sustainability strategy or its aspirations for the student and staff experience. Since the accommodation would house the Faculty of Life Sciences and Health, the university was keen to push the boundaries and create an example that encapsulates the faculty’s teaching and research prowess while fostering a healthy learning environment that reflects its commitment to well-being and sustainability. It wanted to demonstrate that it’s not just a case of “practice what you preach,” but practice what you teach.
As a leading member and founding partner of the Blue Buildings Institute (BBI), Arcadis has been influential in the translation, promotion, and delivery of the WELL Building Standard (WELL) in the real estate and construction sectors in the Netherlands.
WELL takes a holistic approach across ten concepts that comprehensively address the design and operations of buildings and, importantly, how they impact and influence human behaviors related to health and well-being.
As part of this university building renovation, Arcadis’ WELL-accredited professionals partnered with the design team and contractors to guide the university in achieving the WELL standard, supporting the implementation and validation of WELL Building measures.
Given the Tapijnkazerne’s listed status, all measures were designed to be sympathetic to the original design, preserving its heritage elements. For example, when optimizing air quality, rather than replacing the original ventilation, modifications were made to improve it. This saw 'intelligent' controls installed to continuously measure the air quality in the rooms, adjusting the enhanced and highly filtered supply of fresh air in accordance with the number of people occupying the spaces. This ensured that the supplied air is always 100% fresh—and at higher quality levels than required by Dutch legislation—with no air being recirculated.
The result is much greater than the sum of its parts. Not only was Maastricht University able to create an environmentally friendly and sustainable building to support the education of 1,000 students, but it also became the first sustainable university campus to meet the WELL Building Standard.
It is this focus on human resilience, performance, and productivity that most closely resonates with the Faculty of Life Sciences and Health’s own research agenda, supporting their existing staff and students to be happier, more engaged, more productive, and healthier, and hopefully encouraging others to join the university in the future.
Furthermore, Maastricht University will use the knowledge it acquired during the WELL Building process for the Tapijnkazerne within future real estate activities, and it is hoped that the building will serve as a living lab for health research.
As part of our Sustainable UM 2030 strategy, Maastricht University is doing everything in its power to be as sustainable as possible, whether it concerns education, research or business operations. In the redevelopment of the Tapijnkazerne, all three aspects come together to make our university more sustainable, especially with a view to the well-being of the members of our community.
Our recent research into the effects of indoor climate on health and productivity, including in homes, offices and schools, clearly shows that healthy buildings lead to better results.
Students and researchers benefit greatly from a 'healthy' learning and working environment. Integrating wellbeing and health into the development of the Tapijnkazerne endorses the importance of sustainability and health for Maastricht University and puts home-made academic research directly into practice.
The first WELL Building certification of a university building in Europe is the crowning glory of the work we have done recently together with the design team, construction team and Maastricht University. WELL Building assessment not only addresses architectural and technical installation measures, but also facility services aspects such as the caterer, facility management and maintenance, and health policy for staff and students. It was a true co-creation process, and we - like Maastricht University - are very proud of this impressive achievement.
WELL is an exciting development for our industry, putting the emphasis not just on how we create sustainable places that benefit the planet, but also benefit those people who use them.
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