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Rotterdam’s academic hospital was designed in 1965 by Arie Hagoort, in collaboration with Jean Prouvé. The main entrance to the building was on the freely accessible outside space on top of the parking deck. This concept was problematic; access was closed and soon people started using the third floor as the main entry.

The new design provides a roof over this space and merges all student programmes around one central square, where students from all of the medical disciplines meet.
The extra area needed to create the square has been gained by covering the existing enclosed outdoor area at the deck on the second floor with a column-free roof, which continues the diagonal construction lines found in the existing design.

The design embraces the original concept of accessibility into an indoor environment, the deck floor has been reclaimed and clear routes along with easy way-finding are guaranteed. Thank to the spectacular ceiling, the central lobby is very bright and spacious. 4500 m² of PVC acoustic stretched ceiling have been installed to improve the sound comfort.

The education square is spanned by crossing trusses that leads to big squares which are subdivided in fours and by twos, resulting in several glazed triangles and allowing the roof to generate diffused light.