TU DELFT
T
he city of Delft was almost destroyed by an explosion in a gunpowder store in 1654. Today, nearly four centuries on, it is a bustling, pleasant city and home to the University of Technology, TU Delft. The university is located on a campus on the outskirts of the city, there are 30,000 students and 5,500 staff spread over eight faculties.
For the past three years Pieter van de Graaf FCSI,
of Netherlands consultancy The Food Office, has taken care of the F&B outlets across the campus. There is a wide variety of outlets, but there was one thing lacking – a high-end restaurant. “It was a long-cherished wish of the executive
board to have somewhere to take important guests, the king for example,” says van de Graaf (King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands visited the campus to open a new laboratory building in 2019). “It is for the faculty members, the teachers, professors, higher management, that’s the target group for the restaurant.” The environment at TU Delft is down to earth, typically Dutch. As van de Graaf explains: “There’s a saying here; ‘just act normal, that’s strange enough’.” So, although students are not the main target customers, they would be welcomed, too. There was some debate around the subject as faculty members wanted to be able to have a discussion over a meal and not have to worry about being overheard by students sitting behind them. While students are welcome they are not made to feel at home. The prices are not student-like for a start and there is (deliberately) a lack of plug sockets so it’s not the sort of place where you can come in and sit on your laptop for four hours with a cup of coffee. The idea is not to have meetings in this space. It’s supposed to be a quiet haven amid the
busy campus. If students do come it’s to celebrate a successful exam or receiving a diploma. When the executive board first asked van de
Graaf: “Pieter, can you do this?” he said yes, but realized it would take time for them to decide how the new place would look. In the meantime van de Graaf started visiting other universities to see how they did things and what was successful. Quite a few universities have a faculty club for faculty members. It needed to be close to the executive board offices so they could walk there easily. Ideally it should also be close to the building where the degrees and diplomas are presented. At Delft they call this the Town Hall of the campus.
Taking the opportunity
Looking around the campus at TU Delft there was already a small restaurant with a bar in the ideal location. The restaurant was serviced by a large catering firm and the bar was run by a local company, so it wasn’t available. Then a few months later the small local company withdrew from the campus. “My colleague and I realized this was our
moment,” says van de Graaf. “I quickly asked an interior designer to prepare some sketches, because I knew that if I was to go to the board I needed to be proactive and show them some ideas, so I took the initiative and went to the executive board with the idea and sketches and said, look what we can do, and they got excited and said: ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for all these years’.” Pieter van de Graaf had also done his research into Delft restaurants and their success factors. He'd come to the conclusion that the space should include a private dining area, so if a VIP guest, such as the king, did pay another visit he could be entertained in style in a space divided from the main restaurant. TU Delft aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.
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Above: Pieter van de Graaf FCSI used all his project management skills to bring the faculty club in on time and on budget. Opposite page: The private dining room was considered a desirable feature
EAME
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