ABSTRACT
Realizing that its environment was hindering its competitiveness on a global stage, in 2007 Erasmus University Rotterdam’s (EUR) executive board launched a master-planning competition to transform its estate. The master plan is shaped by several key principles: improving connectivity across the site and with its wider surroundings; upgrading the public realm; and removing cars. The situation reached a tragic watershed in 2010 when two postgraduates were killed in crossfire just outside the campus gates, triggering the process that culminated in 2014 with the launch of Regeneracion, a ten-year master plan that balances improvements to the University's learning and research environment with a commitment to the Distrito. Time will tell whether the Tec will prove the catalyst for the city that it aims to be, but the master plan is a clear reflection that the health of a university is intimately interwoven to the health of the community that surrounds it.
