About two and a half years after the fire, the majority of the employees in the Buildings S.B and S.D on Stadscampus are back in their familiar places. Or perhaps not that familiar, as the offices did undergo a drastic makeover. The workspaces are now lighter and open, providing plenty of opportunity to meet one another.
Building S.B. used to be quite boring before the fire: an endless corridor – think: hospital corridor – with doors on either side and a minimum of daylight. The forced renovation was a good opportunity to get rid of that outdated look. Interior walls were replaced by glass walls and cupboards by benches, ceilings were raised, and pipes were neatly hidden away. This resulted in pleasant office spaces with ample daylight and plants and inviting places to sit, work and – a concept new to us as well – land.
After the Faculty of Arts (FLW) had already returned to its previous offices in Building S.D. in March, it was the turn of the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) at the beginning of October. The first three floors of Building S.B. have been in use again ever since. On 3 December, the building was officially inaugurated in the presence of our rector.
Open workspaces
Everyone was happy with the brand-new office spaces, but they did take some getting used to: alongside the individual desks, quite a few open workspaces and flexible workstations were introduced. ‘With the exception of the dean, the Dean’s Office and the study programme counsellor, no one has their own desk any more,’ says FBE Director Tinne Borremans. ‘Everyone reserves their workstation on a daily basis. As we have fewer workstations than before, we need to use them more efficiently. It was a smooth transition, because the FBE staff had already been working with flexible seats and reservations in their temporary offices.’ Once the fourth floor has been finished, more individual offices will be created again. ‘Perhaps the full-time professors will once again get their own offices,’ Tinne says, looking ahead.
Large living kitchen
As eating at your desk doesn’t fit into a clean desk concept, since the move the employees have been having lunch together in the large living kitchen, which includes a coffee corner and is accessible to all UAntwerp staff. ‘This provides more opportunities for spontaneous meetings. It’s now easier for PhD students, for example, to get to know each other. Too bad you weren’t here this afternoon, when we had a full house. The atmosphere is always great here,’ Tinne says enthusiastically.
Visitors welcome
At FLW, everyone is happy with the new office spaces as well. The interior and style are similar, but they have more individual desks. ‘Our professors still have their own offices. We made this choice because we often work with physical books. The researchers and PhD students are together in the shared workspaces. That makes for a nice symbiosis,’ says FLW Director Virginie Coucke.
A new feature of the reopened buildings are the many large and small meeting rooms, which all UAntwerp employees can reserve. Each of these rooms has a conferencing screen for hybrid meetings. In addition, there are open workspaces on each floor where visitors and colleagues from other faculties can work without a reservation. This may come in handy before or after a meeting, or for discussions between master students. This new formula is especially successful at FBE.
Sustainable materials
Where possible, sustainable solutions were used in the renovation. ‘As we only worked on the interior, we couldn’t make any major changes in terms of sustainable technology. The most important modification was the insulation of the facades on the inside,’ explains Lieven Willems, head of the Infrastructure Department. ‘But we did consistently opt for sustainable materials, such as bamboo for the door frames and carpet tiles made largely from recycled materials,’ project leader Steven Simons adds. Most of all, the new offices are an example of sustainable use of space. ‘That’s something our university will have to work towards in the years ahead anyway,’ says Lieven.
And what about the unfinished floors of Building S.B? Lieven: ‘Work will continue there as soon as the new roof has been installed. On the fourth floor, office spaces will be created again, which we’ll probably be able to start using in 2026 or 2027. The plans for the fifth floor haven’t been finalised yet, so we won’t start furnishing that floor anytime soon.’
