Christophorus Henricus Diederik Buys Ballot (1817 - 1890)
Cover of brochure produced April 1988 on the occasion of the naming of the building and the opening of the library.
Main entrance prior to 2016.
This building was originally named Building for Experimental Physics and used by the research groups Molecular Physics, Atomphysics, Technical Physics, Medical and Physiological Physics, Biophysics and Electronics, Theoretical Physics and the Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography.
In 1988, the name was altered into Buys Ballotlaboratory when the building was shared between Physics, Astronomy, Space Research and Meteorology and Oceanography. In 2016 it was pragmatically changed into Buys Ballotbuilding when the main character of the building altered into an office building..
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht
Van Hasselt and De Koning, Nijmegen
Contractors I.B.B./Kondor, Leiden, Nagtglas Versteeg (Amsterdam, electrical installations), Smits van Burgst (The Hague, mechanical engineering).
In the original concept, the building had offices at the north and south facades. In the middle, without daylight entering, the experimental rooms were situated for laser-techniques, climate rooms, photographic dark rooms, dustfree testing rooms, but also drawing rooms, libraries and storage. The building has a concrete construction and has eight floors with a basement.
The building has a significance as an important part of the urban development ensemble of the northwest cluster. Like the adjacent buildings, it is designed based on the module size 1.60m and is connected to two buildings by a walkway at the first floor.
First design: 1961
Start building: end 1969
Finished: September 1973
Officially opened: June 6th, 1974
Renovation 2nd: floor 600 sqm library, 1987, officially opened April 15, 1988
21.316 gross sqm. (9.855 net sqm)
85.934 m3 gross
Budget: 27 Mfl.
None
The name of the building:
Christophorus Henricus Diederik Buys Ballot (1817 - 1890) was born in Kloetinge in the southern Province of Zeeland as the son of a clergyman. In 1835 Buys Ballot enrolled at Utrecht University as a student of arts. However, he also took lessons in mathematics and physics and did a PhD on the principles of co- and adhesion in 1844. In 1845 he was appointed 'lector' (ass. professor) in geology and mineralogy and somewhat later also in theoretical chemistry. In 1847 he became a parttime professor in mathematics and in 1857 he received a full professorship in mathematics.
He was a man of many talents and in 1867 Buys Ballot was appointed professor in Physics. His first publications on the subject of meteorology date back to 1846. Buys Ballot is famous for the meteorological law (1854) that takes his name and may be expressed as follows: In the Northern Hemisphere, stand with your back to the wind; the low pressure area will be on your left. Buys Ballot could derive his law empirically, and was able to support the theoretical deduction of the principle that the American William Ferrel had discovered the year before.
On Jan 31st 1854, Buys Ballot founded the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) at Sonnenborgh in Utrecht, became its first director and stayed in charge until his death in 1890.
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