Uitgevoerd: Yes
Periode: 1999-2005
Type: School
The school is be expanded by 1500 m², renovated and partly rebuilt.
Intense cooperation with both the principal’s office and teaching staff has led to a number of ingenious changes, intended to boost the educational project (adding duplex levels leading to outside classes, special playgrounds setup…).
Essentially, this is an amalgamation of a set program with a basic architectural concept. The program was distilled from a wide range of requests put forward and conditions set by teachers, headmasters, parents, contractors, practicalities, the available budget and last but not least: educational requirements. The concept consists of the existing building, a skeleton, a skin, light and technology.
Though this is a basic, classic, clear concept, it is not tired or dull. It was consistently maintained during all stages of planning and execution, to serve as a guideline rather than just a starting point.
This choice of concept had some interesting additional advantages. One standard concept was applied to the whole complex, thus taking the pressure off the budget. It worked as a ‘miracle solution’ to avoid repetition in the plans for the new structure. It provided a challenge, to re-examine familiar traditional ways and confront the unconventional program and its broader context.
This context consists of the typical amalgam of public buildings found in any medium-sized town: a school building dating from the 1970’s and some tennis courts on one side of the street, and on the other side a community centre, an outdoor parking lot, and a youth centre in a building decorated in a style from some forgotten time. In a context such as this, a Euclidian, abstract idea (skeleton, skin, light, technology) seemed the most appropriate solution – not to attempt at integration, but as a confrontational move, to encourage the dialogue between a fragmented context (no uniformity of style) and the abstract architecture of the new build, to present this combination as one well-conceived, rationally designed whole.
cooperation construction: studiebureau Mouton bvba