Dimensie

For many the Cubicus is just another building on campus, for Dimensie it is our home. In honour of this place where we have spent hours studying, socialising and developing into true adults (or ‘burgers’ as some might say), RedacCie has delved into the history of the building and all that it has experienced throughout the years.

History
It all started in 1973, when the University of Twente hired architects Leo Heijdenrijk and Jos Mol to come up with a design for a new building. Inspired by geometry and structuralism, they came up with a design representing multiple intertwined cubes. The building was initially meant for applied mathematics and arithmetics. Building manager Leo, who we interviewed for this blog, still recalled having his first excel course in this building in the 90’s. As mathematics and arithmetics quickly shifted to being taught predominantly behind computers, the need for such a big building decreased. Since then, the study of Psychology was located in the Cubicus. Only since the last eight years, the building functions as a base for the whole BMS faculty. Fun fact: at the time the building was built, students helped out with building the bridge from the O&O square to the Cubicus!

Maze myth
As many of you might have heard, the Cubicus was intentionally designed as a maze. The idea behind this was that students would bump into each other more and would thus socialise more. The unnecessarily long routes to offices or lecture halls also made sure that you saw a big part of the building on your way to wherever you needed to go. Unknowingly to many, Ravelijn and Carré were designed with the same purpose in mind; passing by many parts of the building before reaching your destination.

Fire
In general, the Cubicus has not experienced a lot of commotion during its existence. It is a very calm and peaceful place. However, there was one instance that made headlines in the news. During an early morning in 2001, half of the building burned up in flames. Leo remembers this day like it was yesterday. At the time, he worked in the Hogekamp building. He biked to work like he usually did, but was surprised when he saw big white smoke clouds rising up above the Hengelosestraat. When he got closer to the Hogekamp building, he saw the fire originated from the Cubicus. He described it as surreal. In front of the building on the fenced off field that still exists, cows were eating grass like nothing was going on (see the picture below!). When Leo got to the scene, police were present and firefighters were already trying to extinguish the fire. Sadly, the firefighters did not manage to decrease the fire and decided to let it burn down part of the building and go out on its own. The fire was able to burn down half of the building because at the time, big parts of the building were made out of wood. 

Everyone who was at the scene was taken by the police and had to show their hands, because the police hoped to smell gasoline on the hands and in doing so find who did it. Only a week later, the culprit was found. During this week, Leo and his colleagues had to do night shifts in the other buildings, because the university was scared that the culprit would start fires in the other buildings as well. Leo slept during the day and worked at night. Every sound startled him.

The person who started the fire was an employee of the university. Prior to that fateful day, he heard that he would be fired from his job. As you might already suspect, he was not happy about it. He expressed his anger by pouring gasoline throughout a part of the building and lighting it, causing 40 million euros worth of damage.

Covid time
After the fire, the building was restored to half the size of what it used to be. The following years nothing much happened. Until March 2020. Covid was spreading fast and all schools and universities decided to close their doors. The once so lively campus turned into a ghost town from one week to the next. While all students and professors were at home, Leo had to stay in his office in the Cubicus and go on rounds to make sure no students were in the building. He refers to this time as strange and lonely, but he said it also had its perks. As there were no students stressing about exams and trying to cram in study sessions, he could blast his music as loud as he wanted to. According to Leo, you could hear the music from his office (on the front size of the building) all the way to the parking lot near the bridge. During the covid period, many renovations were done to the building. The building was checked for asbestos, got new power supplies, and new security was installed. Besides letting these people in and working on his own to do’s, Leo was asked by many teachers to keep their plants alive. He did his regular walk past all offices to water the plants and managed to keep them alive until the teachers could go back to their offices.

Leo’s memories and view on the move
Even though Leo saw perks in being alone in the building, he loves the ‘gezelligheid’ of students walking through the building and all the events that are organised in and around the building, like the many barbecues that are held at the parking lot near the water. Although he agrees that the building is ugly and not inviting at all from the outside, he will miss how cosy and homey the Cubicus feels on the inside. He thoroughly enjoys the contact with students and admitted to really like the parent-role he takes on for the study associations in the Cubicus. He finds a lot of joy in walking into the association rooms and shouting ‘BESTUUR’ when he wants to ask something or needs to mention that it is really time to clean up because the Rubix is too messy or dirty. Sadly, Leo will continue his job in Capitool, where all the teachers will be located as well. So, make sure to say goodbye to him before the summer break!

He concluded the interview with the following words, a beautiful tribute to the Cubicus: “I wish whole-heartedly that even though the building will be renovated and renewed, the soul of the building will stay.”