Two days after the fire, Edward Hulsbergen posted this article on the website of B-nieuws. He lost his nearly 40 years of collected print productions in the fire.
Two physical souvenirs are in my pocket: the key to room 8.11, and key ‘fiets 4’, which fits a bike that might yet be saved in the basement. When I see a photo of the ruins, I still try to identify where my desk, bookcases, etc, were during the last years. Tuesday the 13th I left the scene when I saw smoke on level 8. I headed for OTB, where the warm welcome also included a room, computer and coffee. The first email came in before noon, from Nigeria: cousin Hugo wanted to know if I was still alive. More mails came with the same question. The burning of Bouwkunde seemed to spread like fire. Paul Stouten and I started organising the work and meetings with students for the rest of the week and the weeks to come. I finished the afternoon with tea in the good company of Iwan Kriens and Ina Klaasen. Until late in the evening mails and phone calls kept on coming in. Indeed, this fire destroyed a lot. No matter who you meet . next-door colleagues or those who used to work elsewhere in the building . no one has any problem bringing up a list of losses.
For me, the typed and later printed productions of almost forty years went up in smoke (forty, by the way, is the number of the learning-period), as well as what I preserved from scientific allies, and a selection of opponents to stay sharp; as well as books and other forms of publications about the social and spatial aspects of urban renewal and regeneration, for the use of students; as well as old books worth saving, larded with my notes; as well as CDs with electronic versions of books or chapters; as well as students’ research reports, papers, graduation reports, tests, lists of marks; as well as two paintings, antique photos, pictures, small statues, minerals and fossils among which a mammoth tooth that once accompanied the writing of my dissertation; as well as (farewell) presents from my students. And all the other things that in the coming days, maybe months, will float to the surface called memory. So far about the destructive side of the fire. There can be imagined a constructive side. No longer can I or need or must I decide what to keep and what to give away. Matter has become virtual, but in the practice of daily life this was already going on. Except of course with regard to the art and fossils. ‘Less’ might lead in time to more consciousness of emptiness, and consequently to new space. This philosophical approach to the phenomenon of attachment and loss might on the one hand be utter nonsense, but on the other hand it may make it easier to stay on track.
Dr. Edward Hulsbergen is associate professor at the chair of spatial planning of the Faculty of Architecture.
Two physical souvenirs are in my pocket: the key to room 8.11, and key ‘fiets 4’, which fits a bike that might yet be saved in the basement. When I see a photo of the ruins, I still try to identify where my desk, bookcases, etc, were during the last years. Tuesday the 13th I left the scene when I saw smoke on level 8. I headed for OTB, where the warm welcome also included a room, computer and coffee. The first email came in before noon, from Nigeria: cousin Hugo wanted to know if I was still alive. More mails came with the same question. The burning of Bouwkunde seemed to spread like fire. Paul Stouten and I started organising the work and meetings with students for the rest of the week and the weeks to come. I finished the afternoon with tea in the good company of Iwan Kriens and Ina Klaasen. Until late in the evening mails and phone calls kept on coming in. Indeed, this fire destroyed a lot. No matter who you meet . next-door colleagues or those who used to work elsewhere in the building . no one has any problem bringing up a list of losses.
For me, the typed and later printed productions of almost forty years went up in smoke (forty, by the way, is the number of the learning-period), as well as what I preserved from scientific allies, and a selection of opponents to stay sharp; as well as books and other forms of publications about the social and spatial aspects of urban renewal and regeneration, for the use of students; as well as old books worth saving, larded with my notes; as well as CDs with electronic versions of books or chapters; as well as students’ research reports, papers, graduation reports, tests, lists of marks; as well as two paintings, antique photos, pictures, small statues, minerals and fossils among which a mammoth tooth that once accompanied the writing of my dissertation; as well as (farewell) presents from my students. And all the other things that in the coming days, maybe months, will float to the surface called memory. So far about the destructive side of the fire. There can be imagined a constructive side. No longer can I or need or must I decide what to keep and what to give away. Matter has become virtual, but in the practice of daily life this was already going on. Except of course with regard to the art and fossils. ‘Less’ might lead in time to more consciousness of emptiness, and consequently to new space. This philosophical approach to the phenomenon of attachment and loss might on the one hand be utter nonsense, but on the other hand it may make it easier to stay on track.
Dr. Edward Hulsbergen is associate professor at the chair of spatial planning of the Faculty of Architecture.
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