Zwijssen building

After considerable debate, the contemplation center in the middle of the campus was named after Bishop Joannes Zwijsen (1794-1877). Being the founder of several educational orders and having a major educational publishing house named after him, he was the best known clergyman in Tilburg history. But his name means nothing to anyone now, the protesters objected, and, what’s more, Zwijsen is the representative of a traditional world view whereas the building ought to represent a more open kind of Catholicism. The remarkably unremarkable building, nicknamed “the submarine,” was built with private funding, collected by Frans Teunissen, leading man at the Center for Science and Values at the time. It was designed by Ad Roefs after an idea of the Eindhoven architect Martien Jansen, who designed the University Library.

Contemplation

The Zwijsen Building was opened in 1992 as a contemplation center that would express an “open Catholic outlook,” a center for people wishing to contemplate in silence whatever their religious affiliation. As it meant to be open to students and staff irrespective of their religious backgrounds, the first floor is currently being used by Muslims to perform their daily prayers. The building also serves as a platform for a range of meetings and debates organized by the Academic Forum and other University departments and organizations. The main hall on ground floor has two works of art by the Tilburg artist Marc Mulders. The building was thoroughly renovated in 2014. In his re-inauguration speech in February 2015, President of the Board Koen Becking quoted Martinus Cobbenhagen: “The fundamental idea of a university is none other than that the philosophy that should govern people’s actions in every area of life should also inspire learning in one’s formative years and thus turn it into a fully human schooling.”