The jury for the BLAStprijs 2020 has unanimously chosen the redesigned BUAS (Breda University of Applied Sciences) campus as this year’s winning project.  The project is a collaboration between the offices of INBO and CULD.

The BLAStprijs is Breda’s prize for landscape, architecture and urban development.  The prize is an initiative of the Breda architecture platform BLASt, supported by the municipality of Breda. This year’s theme of the prize was Best Public Building.

The jury appreciated the ambition and sensitivity expressed in this integrally designed project. “The public space and landscape are well designed and add relaxation to the surrounding neighborhood, design choices have been consistently implemented with a keen eye for returns. Above all, it has become a nice place to stay,” said the jury report. “Of the four nominated projects, the transformation of BUAS has the largest social impact; the project is important for the development of the city’s public space.”

For this “design to budget” project, INBO and CULD, together with Deerns, Pieters Bouwtechniek, DGMR, Rod’or and Ontwerpbureau B&W, took the next step in the Breda tradition of campus transformations.  In the design for the BUAS campus, two existing education buildings and a former monastery have been transformed and embedded in a green, traffic-free park.  Common functions and entrances have also been rethought and strategically positioned. A newly designed passageway through the old monastery building ensures that the three existing inner gardens become the lobbies of the complex.

“We wanted to stimulate meeting people as much as possible with our design for the campus. The green park with sloping romantic lines is draped on a sturdy axial cross of tree lanes that connect the buildings. We continue these lines and connections in the buildings as much as possible. The three different buildings are connected strongly with the parc inside out. The campus has become an inspiring and bustling place in Breda, where there is always something to do,” said Huub Juurlink (landscape architect / urban planner at CULD) and Bert van Breugel (architect at INBO).

The jury consisted of architect Ingrid van der Heijden (partner CIVIC architects), Bas van der Pol (director of the Rotterdam Architecture Institute) and architect Johan De Wachter (partner JDWA).

“A convincing winner,” said the jury report.