Yesterday, team Bubble announced the new name “Meteor Community Café” at Hubble Community Café. Haven residents were specially invited and every visitor was given the opportunity to provide input on the interior design and drinks selection by means of a suggestion box and a floor plan with sticky notes. Team Bubble, which is responsible for founding and constructing the café, greatly values feedback from the target audience. [Field for link]: Anyone who has ideas or questions can get in touch here.

“There is clearly a great need on campus for more space to get together and be active,” says Sidney den Engelsman. The Built Environment master’s student has been involved with the construction of Haven since the very beginning. “Initially in an advisory role for the student community and later as a member of team Bubble as a potential tenant.” He knows from experience that Hubble can sometimes feel cramped. “It gets a lot of visitors, and reservation requests often have to be denied.”

Castor

A second café, managed by the same students who make the decisions for Hubble, provides that much-needed space. The fact that the café is located in the residential tower Castor does not mean it is only intended only for its residents. “Meteor will be accessible to all campus users and will have its own identity,” team member Eva Boots, a Psychology and Technology student, is quick to point out. “The selection will focus on mixed drinks, while Hubble is the place to go for specialty beers. And Meteor will occasionally be available for full reservation. The policy at Hubble is not to allow that. We don’t know yet if there’s a strong demand for that, but it might be nice for associations to have the entire café to themselves once in a while.”

Lounge

According to Den Engelsman and Boots, the main difference between Hubble and Meteor will be the vibe. “While Hubble feels more like a living-room café, Meteor should be more like a lounge area. If Den Engelsman has his way, the mezzanine – the elevated section of the café – will be furnished with a comfy sofa and plenty of cushions.

Team Bubble cannot specify the exact opening date yet. Through this project, Den Engelsman – a master’s student in Construction Management and Engineering – gets to have a first taste of the work he is training for. And he knows that all the aspects of construction are interdependent. “We have people coming in for the interior, kitchen, plumbing, electricity, ceiling, ventilation and tap equipment – and everything has to be coordinated. So we can’t even say when construction will start. But we hope to open in the summer.”