Elementary School Bolderberg

Heusden-Zolder (BE)

Elementary School

Heusden-Zolder (BE)

Starting point for this study is the wish to open up de traditional classroom into smaller articulated spaces of equal size and different use.
To do this without breaking up the classroom as an entity has been our focus.

This articulation is made through the use of repetitive level differences used inside each classroom. The level differences are relatively small (stairs) and continue outside the classrooms throughout the whole school. Corridors become places to meet and work and therefor part of the learning environment.

Elementary School Bolderberg
Beenhouwerstraat 1
Heusden-Zolder
2016

Client: Elementary School Bolderberg
Design: Winfried van Zeeland, together with Ben van de Baaf, Paul Kommert
Status: pre study assigment
GFA: 4200m2

Corridor and classroom dissolve into smaller spacial learning units all connected with each other.
These units will be prefabricated and transportated from the factory to the actual site.

The step-like organization of learning spaces inside the school results in a walk-up volume with organic connections between groundlevel (playgrounds and bicycle storage), interior spaces and roof (terrasses for expo and outdoor learning in an safe environment, partially with water and green (Sedum)).

The total space of the school can function as a modern kasbah, where part and parcel are united into a coherent social learning environment.

(Thanks to Friedensreich Hundertwasser | Singender Dampfer In Ultramarin III, 1959)