At one point, TU/e hosted eight science shops. These “shops” connected the university with society, offering external parties the chance to bring in questions related to a specific discipline. The Bouwkundewinkel — the science shop of the Department of the Built Environment (BE), as the name suggests — was established with exactly that purpose.

Over the years, almost all of these science shops have closed. The Bouwkundewinkel is the only one still standing, and they don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. Their secret? Focusing on students first.

From PAB to the Bouwkundewinkel

Fifty years ago, the Bouwkundewinkel was established as the eighth and final science shop at the university. “Back then it was called the Planologisch Adviesbureau (Urban Planning Advisory Office), or PAB for short,” explains Floor van Schie, coordinator of the Bouwkundewinkel and lecturer in Structural Design at BE.

Earlier this year, after 24 years, former coordinator Faas Moonen handed over the role to Van Schie. He still clearly remembers the reason the shop was created. “At the time, project developers were demolishing huge numbers of houses to make way for new construction projects. There was a lot of frustration within the department because many of these homes were still in good condition,” he recalls. “By setting up the shop, we hoped to offer advice to these kinds of external parties.”

Initially, the PAB focused solely on questions related to urban planning. “It was really about how you design a city or a neighborhood,” Van Schie says. Soon after the shop was founded, questions from other specializations began rolling in, such as building technology or architecture. “So in 1985 we decided to broaden our scope, and the PAB was renamed the Bouwkundewinkel. From that point on, people could come to us with any kind of construction-related question,” Moonen explains.

Right to exist

Until 2010, the Bouwkundewinkel — like most science shops at TU/e — operated without much difficulty. “Until the budget cuts in 2010,” Moonen recalls. “Previously, science shops were funded directly by the Executive Board, but the year before, these budgets had been transferred to the departments,” he says. “When the departments were then forced to make major cuts the following year, the shops were often the first to go.”

Up until that point, the Bouwkundewinkel had no educational component; it wasn’t a course that students could take. “At the time, we had seven students working as employees — essentially a student job. They were the only ones carrying out the assignments from the shop,” Moonen explains.

As coordinator, Moonen pushed for a drastic change. “We said: if we want to secure our right to exist, we need to be there for all students,” he says. “A university’s primary role is to educate students. By integrating our assignments into the curriculum, in the form of a course, we could both teach students and safeguard our future.”

A good decision

That choice has clearly paid off. The Bouwkundewinkel has now been part of the BE curriculum for fifteen years, and the numbers speak for themselves. “Last year we set a record compared to the past ten years. 94 students took the course and completed a total of 32 projects,” says Luc Slangewal, student staff member at the Bouwkundewinkel.

In the old situation before the shift toward education in 2010, the team was larger — seven student employees and a coordinator — but produced less. “Back then, only about ten projects were completed each year, and it wasn’t part of the curriculum,” Moonen says. “It just goes to show that budget cuts can sometimes have a positive effect too!”

From executing to organizing

The shop still has four student staff members — Slangewal being one of them — but they no longer carry out projects themselves. “We have an organizational role, and our work at the shop is considered a kind of board year now,” he explains. Together with coordinator Van Schie, they assess the incoming project requests. “Clients may have a problem with their home, a school playground, or the layout of a new neighborhood. When they first reach out, their questions are usually incredibly vague.”

It is then up to the student staff members to define these questions more clearly and turn them into feasible student projects. “We look at whether a project is suitable for bachelor’s or master’s students, whether it fits into an eight-week period, and — most importantly — whether supervision is available,” Slangewal says. “We determine which lecturer is suited for the topic and when they’re available.” Last year, eighteen BE lecturers supervised one or more Bouwkundewinkel projects.

On to one hundred

With fifty years to its name, the Bouwkundewinkel is firmly embedded in the Department of the Built Environment — and if it’s up to Van Schie, Moonen, and Slangewal, it will continue toward its hundredth anniversary. “It truly is a unique course where students get to work with real clients, an opportunity they rarely get in other courses. That real-world experience is incredibly valuable,” Van Schie says.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.