Newsletter 14

The highest point of the new building was reached early in October! On 10 October, staff and students from the academy joined the builders and consultants to celebrate this milestone. To mark the occasion, guests were taken on an exclusive guided tour of the new building. Now that the highest point has been reached, work can start on completing the building. This means that the focus will now shift to things such as fittings, wiring and walls, and that work has also begun on the façade of the building. The bridge linking the new building to the Benthem Crouwel Building will be installed after dark to prevent disruption to educational activities. The project is expected to be completed in February 2018.

The Preparatory Year and Orientation Year have moved into the sixth floor of the Benthem Crouwel Building, a floor that also offers space for projects and theory classes from other departments. The addition of more glass has brought extra natural light to the sixth floor. All departments on the second floor of the Rietveld Building are now at their permanent new locations, and all necessary adjustments to accommodate them have been made. In the Rietveld Building, the fire alarm and entrance systems have both been updated. A large new storage cupboard has also been installed in the canteen, so that the old storage space next to the loge could be removed. The portakabin has been moved to the Overschiestraat. Current floor plans are found here.

TXT alumna Anastasia Starostenko has designed the curtains for the auditorium / theory stairs in the new building (see photograph). Anastasia was inspired by the building’s open structure and the resulting interaction to design curtains that allow people inside the building to peer outwards, and those outdoors to look in. A jury of teachers and involved parties from outside of the academy selected her design following a successful pitch. A unique design element of Anastasia’s curtains is that she pulls threads out of the material by hand. Due to the usage of a daylight beamer, the transparency of the curtains won't cause any problems while using the space.

Students Ebba Stoppelenburg and Liza Koroleva (VAV – moving image) are months into producing a film focusing on the new building. Former VAV - moving image teacher Paul van den Berg plays the lead role in the short film. Developments in the film mirror those of the new building and will therefore be screened around the time of the official opening. The image depicts a still from the film.