Walking along the banks of the Meuse or through a sculpture garden during your lunch break, having something to eat at one of the many restaurants and picking an apple from the fruit garden. For students and staff in 'plain, empty' Randwyck, it may be hard to imagine now, but in the future this will be the daily reality. At least, that is what the Maastricht municipality, UM, MUMC+, the Province of Limburg, MECC and the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus hope. Using a "new narrative" – developed by a working group with representatives of the parties involved – as a guide, they want to give the campus a major boost in the coming years. Last week, the aldermen involved shared the document with the city council, after it had already been presented to local residents at the MECC last April.
The goal: for Randwyck to "swing". According to the working group, the area contains the right ingredients for a successful campus - lots of students and researchers, a university hospital, housing, business and innovation, with the ETpathfinder (test facility for the Einstein Telescope) and the companies Medtronic (medical technology) and Mosa Meat (cultured meat) as successful examples. But all this takes place mainly behind closed doors. More visibility should create more attraction. Which in turn benefits the surrounding area, said alderman Frans Bastiaens (Urban Development, among others) during the meeting in April. "Already, with thousands of jobs and students, Randwyck is important for the economy of the city and the region. In the future, the knowledge economy will only become more important."
Moving the car parks
If it is up to the working group, the campus will be entirely dedicated to the theme of 'healthy living'. To achieve this, the area will have to undergo a major makeover. The car parks, which currently dominate a large part of the campus, have to move to the edge of the area (or go underground). They will make way for parks with lots of green areas, water features and art, where people can walk, play sports and meet up. There is already a concrete plan to extend the 'Groene Loper' (the park at the location of a former highway) – under Kennedysingel, via Gaetano Martinolaan, at least to the main entrance of MUMC+ – for which the tendering procedure will start after the summer.
It will also provide more space for business premises and residential accommodation. With a central building, somewhere between the MECC and the MUMC+, as the big eye-catcher. This building should include study areas, labs, facilities for start-ups and a 'health desk' for local residents. In other words: a place where students, researchers, entrepreneurs and citizens come together. Startups that grow can go to the business park south of Oeslingerbaan.
International train station
To attract talented students and workers, Randwyck must also become more attractive to live in. For example, through the presence of more restaurants and cafés, which are currently sparse. "So that the 'burgundian' lifestyle typical of Maastricht can also be found here," municipal urban planner Bas Römgens, a member of the working group, told local residents in April. "Perhaps even including a Michelin-starred restaurant, entirely dedicated to healthy eating, if we dream wildly." The current housing offer should also be expanded. For instance, the municipality would like to see a complex with some 250 homes (mainly for students) plus supermarket appear on the current car park at Walter Hallsteinplein. Maasvallei housing corporation recently gave up on this project (financially unfeasible), but the municipality wants to launch a new European tender soon.
"All in all, it will be a lively area," says Römgens, "attracting many visitors, perhaps even care tourists and day-trippers." That also increases the need for a "new international train station", which would replace the dull, dated "suburban stop" Maastricht Randwyck. That should be a station "with allure", with connections to Düsseldorf and Brussels international airports and a "three-country train between Liège, the South Limburg campuses and Aachen".
Full steam ahead
So, many plans, but whether everything will go ahead is by no means certain. "This is just a narrative that serves as a basis for further development," the working group stressed at the neighbourhood meeting. "A development organisation will now investigate whether everything is financially and spatially feasible and whether it actually provides added value." It should produce a "master plan" for the future of the campus, which is expected to be finished next year.
Nevertheless, the "narrative" already got the applause of the few hundred local residents present. Although sceptical voices were also heard. "We have sat here before and then we heard similar plans. Who says something will come of it now?" Indeed, there have been several attempts in the past to make better use of the area's potential, agreed programme manager Wouter Hankel (Maastricht municipality). "Unfortunately, that went by fits and starts. Think of this as a new beginning. We now want to go full steam ahead."