UvA researchers create historic 3D reconstructions of university quarter
What did today’s university quarter look like 100 years ago? UvA historians, archaeologists, and 3D modelers have reconstructed three buildings in minute detail. “New roof tiles or panels of windows give clues about how the building was used.”
After the monster job of historically mapping the Waterlooplein neighborhood, archaeologists, historians, and 3D modelers from the 4D Research Lab at the UvA began a new project in 2020: the historical reconstruction of the current university quarter. The original idea (From Monastery to Quarter) by architectural historian Lex Bosman was to spatially visualize on a detailed level how the site has been transformed from the Middle Ages to today.
Meanwhile, archaeologist and 3D modeler Tijm Lanjouw and six fellow researchers reconstructed the first three UvA buildings at various points in time: the Oudemanhuispoort, the new University Library (UB) - formerly the Second Surgical Clinic and the Nurse’s House - and the Binnengasthuisterrein 5 (BG5).
The researchers also created a tour of the three UvA buildings in collaboration with Amsterdam Humanities Hub. At various points, visitors can scan QR codes to see on their phones in 360 degrees what that place looked like 100 years ago. There are also videos and a website that uses 3D visualizations to tell the history of the building.
Did your research uncover any new things about the buildings?
“Yes, but mainly on a detailed level. We used all the historical knowledge of the buildings from reports for one 3D visualization and, in addition, performed a kind of ‘search-for-the-differences’ with visual material from the city archives. The things we then discovered were precisely the small, undocumented intermediate stages: new roof tiles that have been laid, or different doors or panels of windows, micro-level changes that give clues about how the building was used.”
“One of the things I found very striking was the façade of the university library. It looks a bit like castle architecture, but it used to be much more impressive. The now-obscured latticework was very elaborate back then. This was not only decorative but also had a function: The crenellations were the outlets of a 19th-century ventilation system that ran throughout the Second Surgical Clinic. Later, that system was no longer functional and those crenellations were cut off and bricked up. In the 3D visualization, you can now experience what an impression the building must have made.
What did hospitals look like at the end of the nineteenth century?
“Between 1887-1890 the Clinical Hospital (BG5) was built, followed by the Second Surgical Clinic in 1897. Before that, there was also a hospital on that site, the Binnengasthuis, but it was housed in ramshackle buildings that dated all the way back to monastic times. In the late 19th century, they wanted to modernize the hospital so they built two new buildings with electric lighting, a ventilation system, and courtyards with balconies where patients could sit in the open air.”
“The Second Surgical Clinic and the Nurses’ House, where the new university library is now being built, were adjacent. There was a tunnel to the courtyard for the hospital car. In the Nurses’ House is where the nursing staff lived. That was quite normal then. In the Clinical Hospital, the nurses lived in the attic, so more and more bay windows had to be added to create space.”
“The Second Surgical Clinic was also famous for its surgical theater, an international phenomenon that was already on the wane by the time it arrived in Amsterdam. Based on a report with photos from Elsevier’s Geillustreerd Maandschrift of the opening, and with help from the curator of the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden, we were able to figure out what the surgical theater must have looked like.”
What was the surgical theater?
“It was an operating room with a gallery where UvA students could watch surgery being performed. The idea was based on the anatomical theater from the 17th century, a cutting table where corpses were dissected in front of an audience. We lobbied very hard to get rid of the term ‘cutting room.’ It is really an operating room. That’s what it says in the initial building plans.”
How did an operation work in the nineteenth century?
“The room consisted of three posts. The patient, probably already under anesthesia, was brought in and then washed. That sink with a mixing tap was revolutionary at the time and specially designed for Professor Rotgans, the surgeon on duty at the clinic. Then the patient was taken to the operating table - this is the part of the surgical theater to which the students had access - and then wheeled on to the next station where they were sutured.”
“Yet the operating room did not exist in this way for long. In the early 20th century, awareness of microorganisms and the risk of infection was growing, leading to the construction of a new operating room in the 1920s and the conversion of the surgical theater into a lecture hall.”
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What do we gain from these historical reconstructions?
“The purpose of the project was initially to have a visualization of the history of the building for the university and students and not necessarily for the neighborhood. The new university library on the grounds has been under construction for over five years now. It’s also a way to give something back to local residents.”
“What I find special about it is how the models summarize our knowledge of a building in a single image, which differs significantly from a linear research report. Then it also quickly becomes clear what is not known. We also want to integrate margins of uncertainty into the models: What things do we know with certainty and what things are we unsure about? In the surgical theater, we have already been able to indicate that with colors.”
Are you going to map the entire university quarter in this way?
“We don’t know yet. It’s a time-intensive job that also requires funding. But the idea is to expand the concept to more locations at multiple points in time. One of the ideas is to further develop the images into virtual reality and start using that to introduce freshmen to the historic UvA buildings.”
The historical reconstructions of the university quarter will be launched this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at VOX-POP, Binnengasthuisstraat 9. The website can be viewed here.
