Description

The existing institution is located in the small town of St. Truiden, Belgium. The site is close to the town centre and is an attractive park-like setting. Initially the option considered was to restore the existing 1950s pavilions on the site and effect minimum disruption to the life of the institution. However, this was seen as impractical and too inflexible an approach. Therefore a phased process of replacement was adopted starting with the construction of a two-storey classroom block comprising eight classrooms arranged in pairs with associated storage and bathroom zones in-between. Close contact between the new buildings and the existing mature landscape was something the client wished to maintain, so it seemed obvious to the designers that the existing footprint should be followed, replacing the worn-out blocks with new buildings to benefit from the excellent orientation of the existing blocks.

The T form of the existing will be retained and gradually replaced as a series of phased works with the architects preparing a master plan, which maintains the connectivity between inside and outside spaces. Eventually new buildings will wrap round the site edges with an elongated backbone on the street side and ‘fingers’ extending into the green spaces. The park and the building appear like two interlocking hands, providing spatial intimacy for its users. The school educates children with special needs, including two classes for those within the autistic spectrum of behavioural difficulty.

Developing their architecture in close consultation with a team of special needs education experts, the designers noted that one of the key conceptual requirements was to stimulate the users and the need to orientate children with a simple built form, similar to the existing. The use of a limited colour palette inside the new building also facilitates orientation. Basic coding of classrooms with the use of coloured floor surfaces and coloured door icons (different for each room) ensures that the messages the children receive are filtered and not too confusing. However, perhaps the most important aspect of the new environment is what the architects describe as ‘randomised rhythms,’ a clear theme to be seen on the fenestration design. The windows, which are all the same size, are slipped past one another, either seemingly hanging from the ceiling plane or sitting on the floor plane. They are grouped apparently at random; there appears to be no correspondence between the lower and upper floors, yet despite this seeming randomness, there is a definite rhythm which makes the end result a complex visual harmony. It becomes like an abstract pattern, which is fascinating to follow, yet totally logical and consistent when viewed from inside.

Often when architects work with education experts, the way in which they respond is open to a range of interpretations. The architect’s interpretation can end up being in profound conflict with the original intentions of the client who is trying to communicate subtle messages about learning, in a language, which architecturally, is far from subtle. Conceived as a flexible yet repetitive construction system, here the whole design is in harmony with the fundamental views on how these children will learn best.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.