Antithesis: Entrepreneurial Campus. Twente, Hengelo-Enschede, The Netherlands
Duty took me on an on-site visit to the University of Twente, located exactly between the cities of Hengelo and Enschede in the Far Northeast of The Netherlands, virtually on the German border.Twente's a very pretty area and a favorite get-away to nature and quiet for those from the hectic and heavily urbanised Randstad (more or less the area of the cities of Utrecht, Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam of the Netherlands). The pictured Autumnal calm and quiet - especially in the aftermath of a few days of rain - belies the frenetic activity of The Entrepreneurial University just a couple of hundred metres to the back of the photographer.
The University here was established in 1961, and it is the only campus university in The Netherlands. Originally geared almost entirely to engineering, it has broadened out today to the social sciences and to technology, including the philosophy of science, technology and society.
The present campus sprawls over the edges of the country estate 'Drienerloo', on which it was originally centred. "Drienerloo" was owned by the Lasonder family, which rose to local prominence in the later Middle Ages. The last Lasonder's political views were to the extreme far-right, which in The Netherlands of those days meant pro-Hitler (his party of choice was the NSB). During the Second World War, Gerrit Albertus Lasonder (1882-1944) and his German-born wife, Anne Christine Bauer, naturally sympathised with the German occupation forces in The Netherlands. After the war, their possessions were confiscated by the Dutch government. The estate "Drienerloo" was sold to the city of Enschede, who transferred it to the newly founded university of technology (the third in The Netherlands after those of Delft and Eindhoven).
Modern and ultra-modern buildings have not (yet) obliterated the rural and park-like ambiance here. There are photos of a small tea-house shaded prettily by huge trees on these grounds where the Lasonders would take their afternoon drinks. Intriguingly, this same tea-house is said to have been used to hide Albert Plesman (1889-1953) from the German forces in the Second World War. Plesman was a Dutch military aviator who was instrumental in founding the Dutch national airlines, the KLM, now part of Air France. Regrettably, that tea-house was torn down. It would have been a fitting historical monument for technological innovation and industrial entrepreneurship, described so convincingly in the university's mission statement.
Antithesis: Entrepreneurial Campus. Twente, Hengelo-Enschede, The Netherlands
Duty took me on an on-site visit to the University of Twente, located exactly between the cities of Hengelo and Enschede in the Far Northeast of The Netherlands, virtually on the German border.Twente's a very pretty area and a favorite get-away to nature and quiet for those from the hectic and heavily urbanised Randstad (more or less the area of the cities of Utrecht, Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam of the Netherlands). The pictured Autumnal calm and quiet - especially in the aftermath of a few days of rain - belies the frenetic activity of The Entrepreneurial University just a couple of hundred metres to the back of the photographer.
The University here was established in 1961, and it is the only campus university in The Netherlands. Originally geared almost entirely to engineering, it has broadened out today to the social sciences and to technology, including the philosophy of science, technology and society.
The present campus sprawls over the edges of the country estate 'Drienerloo', on which it was originally centred. "Drienerloo" was owned by the Lasonder family, which rose to local prominence in the later Middle Ages. The last Lasonder's political views were to the extreme far-right, which in The Netherlands of those days meant pro-Hitler (his party of choice was the NSB). During the Second World War, Gerrit Albertus Lasonder (1882-1944) and his German-born wife, Anne Christine Bauer, naturally sympathised with the German occupation forces in The Netherlands. After the war, their possessions were confiscated by the Dutch government. The estate "Drienerloo" was sold to the city of Enschede, who transferred it to the newly founded university of technology (the third in The Netherlands after those of Delft and Eindhoven).
Modern and ultra-modern buildings have not (yet) obliterated the rural and park-like ambiance here. There are photos of a small tea-house shaded prettily by huge trees on these grounds where the Lasonders would take their afternoon drinks. Intriguingly, this same tea-house is said to have been used to hide Albert Plesman (1889-1953) from the German forces in the Second World War. Plesman was a Dutch military aviator who was instrumental in founding the Dutch national airlines, the KLM, now part of Air France. Regrettably, that tea-house was torn down. It would have been a fitting historical monument for technological innovation and industrial entrepreneurship, described so convincingly in the university's mission statement.