Uilenstede

Ab Flipse: "On the Uilenstede campus, generations of VU students have tasted the freedom that comes with living away from home for the first time. When VU Amsterdam opened its first buildings on the new campus in Buitenveldert in 1966, the first student housing units were opened at the same time a mile away – just across the border with Amstelveen. Initially, the “freedom” of the students was somewhat restricted by a ‘general manager’, who also had the task of keeping an eye on the behaviour. But the VU students in the 1970s were no longer the well-behaved Reformed students of the past. It was the time of sex, drugs and rock & roll, and supervision turned out to be a hopeless cause.

Uilenstede, as it was later called, grew in a short time into the largest student centre in the Netherlands. By the end of the seventies, almost 3,000 students were already living there. The first low-rise houses and flats were supplemented in 1968 with three thirteen-storey towers. Three more such towers followed later.

All facilities were available: a sports hall, a community centre, a café, a supermarket. Still, according to outsiders, it never really got cosy. Uilenstede was given the image of a student ghetto. The uniformity, the distance from the city, pollution, noise from Schiphol, crumbling stairs and riots with the Amstelveen youth.

Although many students were happy to be able to start at Uilenstede, they preferred to move to the city afterwards. Those who did stay long were often ‘eternal students’ or eccentrics who remained even after graduation – there seemed to be at least one in every unit. And that didn't exactly contribute to a dynamic image."