Why has the temporary Prisma building been in use for so long?

The Prisma building was erected for temporary use in the seventies and eighties of the last century. Nearly fifty years later, it is still up and running. Univers readers wondered: what’s that about?

The university expanded quickly in its first years, so a temporary building was erected on the north side of campus around 1970. It was further developed until the early eighties. In the end, three temporary buildings were combined into one single construction: the Prisma building. The home base of the social sciences department. A labyrinth on campus: the three separate buildings were poorly attuned to one another, its incomprehensible corridors designated with P/s, P/low and P/high.

Turbulent years

Temporary buildings are, as the word suggests, used for a limited time. But the Prisma building is still here after fifty years. Over the years several alternatives were considered. Univers archives show that there were plans for a newly build project in 2010. This was supposed to house the sizeable social sciences department by 2014. But after government cuts to university funding, Executive Board president Hein van Oorschot walked back on this proposal. The director of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB), Hans Dieteren, was bewildered about this decision at the time, as the university had just purchased the Academia building and the Duvelhok building (although that last purchase fell through later).

So, no new building. But the Prisma building was in bad shape, so something had to happen. Subsequently, misunderstandings arose. In 2011, Van Oorschot again brought up the new project. The Board no longer wanted to invest in the Prisma building. Yet, at the start of 2012, the social sciences department presumed a new building was off the table, so serious renovations were in order. Later that year, things changed; the department presumed that a new building was in fact on the cards. Renovating was not an option, it would not solve the problems. For the time being, the Prisma building came in handy; while the Cobbenhagen building was renovated, for a short time the Executive Board was housed in the temporary building. The wing that it took residence in was especially renovated for this purpose. Univers moved from P/s to the Cobbenhagen building this year.

‘Staff was housed in a bunker with leaking skylights, rotting window frames, foul smells and infestations’

The most turbulent year was 2013. People had to vacate the building due to asbestos. Things went downhill quickly that summer. Staff was housed in a bunker with leaking skylights, rotting window frames, cement flooring, foul smells and mice and ant infestations. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Unless the heating turned on, than it was 30 degrees Celsius in the winter. A Univers reader recently tipped off the editorial staff that the fire alarm is barely audible through the thick walls.

Later in 2013, plans were made to modernize the campus and demolish the Prisma building. Director of property Paul Hoeijmans looked at a model in his office at the time. He shook his head: “This building is done for, it’s past its due date, it has leakage issues, it’s too warm, totally run-down.” The temporary building should only have lasted twenty years, Hoeijmans explains. With some patch-up work, that bath tub has been kept afloat for a little longer, because the social sciences department needed to be housed somewhere.

The intention was to demolish the buildings simultaneously, but that hasn’t been the case. In 2015, P/low was torn down, to make way for the learning center. Staff housed at P/low moved. The Psychology department was split up; research institute Corps moved into in the Tias building to form a health department with Tranzo. That institute was already there. The rest of the social sciences department went from P/high to P/s. The new building project was no longer on the table.

1997. Chief editor of Univers Francine Bardoel in the Prisma building. She taught Dutch as a second language.

The Prisma building has been kept upright for decades. The property department started to discuss the future of the Prisma building in 2008, Hoeijmans says now. But, it was long past its prime around the turn of the century. There must have been a conversation about it back then, right?

Not so, Marcel van Ieperen says. Van Ieperen served as vice managing director, acting managing director and then managing director at TSB from 1999 until 2010. “During that time, there were no plans to take any action with regards to the building,” he says. “The university property policy included regular renovations of buildings, but no plans to demolish any of them. Many complained or had suggestions. These mostly regarded how difficult it was to find rooms and orientate oneself, how narrow the corridors were. The former Simon building (P/s building, ed.) was built in the eighties. So it had only been there for twenty years in 2000. P/low was on its last legs, but not the Prisma building as a whole.

‘Many people complained, but there were no plans to take any action with regards to the building’

Demolition is finally on the cards. But not straightaway. Staff that is currently housed in the Prisma building will move to the Simon building during the summer. The Koopmans building will be renovated between 2017 and 2019, so the Economics department will be put up in the Prisma building for two years. In preparation for its arrival, the building has been spruced up to keep both wind and water out. In the summer of 2019, the Prisma building will finally be taken down. Until that time the learning center, which should be completed in January 2018 and fully open in September 2018, will be hidden behind the wooden front of P/high. After that, a space will open up that TiU wants to put to good use, according to Hoeijmans. A campus park will be developed between the library and the station. “Similar to the one around the Cobbenhagen building.”

A bustling place

You can say that the Prisma building is part of campus history. For those that read about this dilapidated labyrinth, it may be difficult to imagine serious academic work taking place there. Or that people were happy there. Its inhabitants did complain at times. But walking along the corridors of P/high, you’ll find a different story. Ilja van Beest, professor of Social Psychology, has worked in P/low for six years. “A bustling place,” he says. “We would all be sitting in broad corridors were lecturers and students met.”

At the end of the corridor fellow professor of Social Psychology, Marcel Zeelenberg, is in his office. Zeelenberg has worked in P/low for over 14 years. When asked about the Prisma building, he says, “Which building? For me, P stands for Psychology. The split two years ago was a bad decision. Corps is now housed at Tias and will remain there. It is such a shame. I no longer meet or speak with a great deal of coworkers.”

Marcel Zeelenberg in his office with a view of the fountain.

Diagonally across the fountain is Corps researcher Willem J. Kop. Kop also has good memories of his time in the Prisma building. He accepts that the move of the institute was necessary. “There was too little space. But, it can never be good to split up a department. We can still work together, but you really have to plan it. That hardly happens, because we are all way too busy.”

Zeelenberg would have liked to stay longer at P/low. Yes, it is a little worn-out and the mice in the hollow walls produce a foul smell, “It smelt as though people always smoked weed there. But it was also beautiful, it was surrounded by trees, you could see rabbits and woodpeckers.” Zeelenberg never regarded the Prisma building as temporary. “People did complain that it didn’t project the right image. But look at English or American universities; our buildings are comparatively nice. The Prisma building included.”

_Advertentie.