It was such a great idea. Need power? Just open a little hatch in the floor and plug in your laptop. Close the hatch and get to work. But the miracle of Santa Clause pales in comparison to the fact that in all those years in the renovated ‘Main Building’, no one has ever broken their neck over these often broken, poorly closing, or missing hatches in Atlas.

What are we talking about exactly? The hatches in the floor, which cover the holes in which the outlets have been ‘invisibly’ concealed. You need two hands to operate the latches, which means you’re missing a third hand to actually press the lid closed. The result: a lot of open lids, which leads to tripping hazards, busted hinges, missing lids, and holes in the floor.

Everyone that works at Atlas has, at one time or another, tripped over these illogically situated cover plates, but – luckily – nobody has ever broken any toes, as far as I’m aware. A colleague who recently started at TU/e actually had an explanation for this: “Once you’ve stumbled your way through your first week, you get used to watching out for obstacles on the way to your desk.”

At open days I always make sure those lidless holes in the floor are covered by tables or chairs, so our guests walk around them rather than into them during a tour. And we’ll just assume that the current Atlas users now know where the dangerous spots are.

Is there a solution for this? Perhaps seal all the covers and have the power strips come from the ceiling, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I haven't counted them, but we're talking about hundreds of outlet covers. They're not all used equally intensively and of course they’re repaired sooner or later, but I'm afraid something bad needs to happen before a real solution is found. There’s an age-old Dutch proverb that goes Als het kalf verdronken is, dempt men de put, which means ‘It’s only after the calf drowns that the well is closed off’. In the present case, the ‘well’ may only be closed off after someone breaks a toe.