About this route

Walk among the imposing buildings of the then Delft Institute of Technology which were built from approximately 1895 to 1945. Tucked away between these buildings are two green elements: the Botanical Garden and De Vries van Heijstplantsoen park.

New university district
To the south of the Rhine-Schie Canal, which was constructed in 1894, the government purchased a large tract of land for the planned construction of the new university district. A number of faculty buildings of the then Delft Institute of Technology, predecessor of today’s Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), were built on this piece of land until 1940. The first two complexes were built around 1900, initially without any underlying total plan, parallel to the new Kanaalweg.

In 1908, municipal architect M.A.C. Hartman drew up an urban design that was implemented with some slight modifications. The main structural elements are Julianalaan as a planned ring road, the Poortlandplein junction and the characteristic flared street layout with the triangular De Vries van Heystplansoen park. From 1918 onwards, four faculty buildings arose around these elements.

In 1915-1917, the Botanical Garden was laid out at the bend of the canal and its associated building arose on Julianalaan. Later, at the end of the 1930s, construction started on the Gele Scheikunde chemistry complex. This work was interrupted by the war and finally completed only after 1945. The southern boundary of this triangular area is formed by Prins Bernhardlaan, alongside which flows the remains of an old watercourse. Of the large building complexes, four were designated as listed buildings in 2002.

Bacteriological Laboratory 1895
Photo by: M.M. Minderhoud | Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0