University of Applied Sciences Breda is a medium-sized, state-financed higher education institution. More than 7,000 Dutch and international students from about 100 countries study at the institute in bachelor and master programs at professional (“HBO”) and academic (“WO”) level in the fields of gaming, media, hotel, facility, logistics, built environment, tourism and leisure. In 2007, the university management planned an all-encompassing image change, which also includes the reconstruction and new construction of the partly historic campus.
In the open competition the Mecanoo – Kopvol Association came second with their design of a gradually developing educational campus. The historical core building, which has been converted into an atrium, forms the core of a culture of encounter that is intended to counter the problematic faculty separation of the past from an architectural psychological point of view.