Options to house the refectory and restaurant temporarily in one of the existing campus buildings have by now been abandoned. The Vrijhof, for example, the most serious alternative, turned out not to have sufficient gas and sewage capacity to process the influx of cooks and eaters. The already booked activities in the Vrijhof-halls also formed an obstacle.
In the temporary eating-tent the meals will not be prepared in their entirety. That is done in the kitchens of the Bouwhuys, a health-care institute in Enschede. The tent will get a 'satellite kitchen', where the courses are 'finished'. With the layout of the eating section of the tent Catering is trying out the situation in the renovated building, where the free flow principle will be implemented, as is the case in for example the La Place-restaurants in the department store V&D.
According to the head of UT-Catering Bart Dirne the decision on the temporary solution should be taken before the Christmas holiday: a tough, winter-hardy tent on the Drienerlolaan, at the level of the Boerderij, approximately where the central tent was situated during the hackers-conference this summer. Building this colossus and its infrastructure will take two months. If the decision-making process is delayed the Bastille will be left later, and its renovation delayed.
Creating the temporary eating facility is, according to the management of the Facility Department who received the final quotations last week, an expensive 'but not the most expensive' solution. The whole operation is estimated to cost seven to eight hundred thousand guilders. There is also the possibility that UT-Catering can after all stay in the Bastille long enough for the Boerderij to be ready to receive them, that of course would be the cheapest option.
