Text: Coretta Jongeling | Some of the Tree House Residents. Photo: Guy Ackermans There are student houses and there are weird and wonderful student houses. In this column we visit the latter. This time: The Tree House.
House: The Tree House
Residents: Babette, Bart, Bas, Bram, Brian, Camille, Cedric, Dennis, Dieke, Eline, Fenne, Hannah, Jorn, Kees, Kim, Koen, Kwin, Laura S, Laura T, Lise, Lotte, Luisa, Luuk, Mink, Natalia, Nelson, Nick, Olivier, Raymon, Rody, Susette, Thijs, Torgeir en Yann.
Unique because: 34 people live there
Thijs: ‘This has been a student house since 2018. Before that, it was a university building. When we moved in, it was totally empty. Here in the kitchen we had two tables and four refrigerators, but of course that was not nearly enough for 34 people. To begin with there were also only Bachelor students living here.’
Bas: ‘That really was over the top. Drinking beer every day, terrible cooking…’
Thijs: ‘It’s different now. The house has become a lot more diverse. We try to do something together once a week. You have to sign up for that, so we know how much food and beer we need. We never manage to have everyone home at the same time, but there are often about 25 of us. We cook in that large catering pot over there.’
Yann: ‘The nice thing is that this building is due for demolition at some point, so we can do whatever we want. Paint on the walls, for example.’
Thijs: ‘With variable results, I must say.’
Bas: ‘We created a gym on the first floor, which is used regularly.’
Mink: ‘That was particularly ideal during the lockdown, when all the gyms were closed.’
Bas: ‘The house has four floors. Each floor has its own atmosphere and routines. The third floor is always very clean, for example.’
Thijs: ‘And the fourth is – er, let’s say the opposite. That’s where the living room is, in the tower. It’s quite big, but it fills up quickly. If everyone invites a few people, you can have 50 people in the room in no time. That could be tricky sometimes during the Covid period.’
Bas: ‘We got quite well-known in Wageningen then because there was the odd party. We can say that now, can’t we?’
Thijs: ‘Sometimes it was almost scary, because so many people came. I would be in the supermarket and I’d hear people say: where are you going tonight, the Tree House as well?’ Bas: ‘Once we had to turn away a long line of people at the door; it was getting really dangerous.’
Would you like to be in Resource with your UNIque student house too? Send an email to resource@wur.nl.
