VTI Brugge

Vrij Technisch Instituut

VTI Brugge

Vrij Technisch Instituut

Programme

The new VTI campus along Vaartdijkstraat in Bruges (at the location of train and tram builder Bombardier) replaces the current buildings along Boeveriestraat. The VTI in Bruges is a technical school with 800 students aged 12 to 19 years. The school building contains studios, classrooms, a refectory and a sports hall. Part of the building is boarding school. There is also an extensive sports infrastructure and adult education is offered. The 17,500 m² building has four floors, a column structure and no load-bearing walls. The technical school is equipped with fully equipped workshops for the technical departments of car mechanics, stage techniques, electricity, mechanics, electromechanics and industrial sciences. The VTI is the third largest school building in Flanders.

Adaptive building

Due to uncertainties about possible growth in the future and changes in the programme, the campus has been conceived as an adaptive building, a building that can adapt itself in function of demand and need. This was done, among other things, by designing the entire building from a functional three-dimensional module (column grid 7.2×7.2m for the education zone and 7.2×10.8m for the boarding school zone), designing the technical rooms as double height and taking expansion options into account.

VTI Brugge
Vaartdijkstraat 3
8200 Bruges
2020

https://www.vtibrugge.be

Client: AG Real Estate | DBFM Schools of Tomorrow NV
Design: 2016-2019
Delivery: 2020
Location: Bruges
GFA: 17.500 m2
Design team: Winfried van Zeeland (with Dick van de Merwe, Jaap van Es (project architect), Niels Nagtzaam, Gert Jan Masmeijer)
Architect: Van den Berg Architecten
Stability Engineer: Ney & Partners, Brussels
Engineer Techniques: SB Heedfeld, Riemst
Advisor environment: Studiebureau Jonckheere, Bruges
Advisor Energy Performance & Indoor Climate: Macobo-Stabo, Leuven
Safety Coordination: Eveka, St.-Niklaas
Advisor acoustics: De Fonseca, Grimbergen
Directorate: Bureau Bouwtechniek, Antwerp
Contractor: TM Eifage Vlaanderen svm, Bruges
Photography: Laurens Kuipers, Haaksbergen

Adaptive building

Due to uncertainties about possible growth in the future and changes in the programme, the campus has been conceived as an adaptive building, a building that can adapt itself in function of demand and need. This was done, among other things, by designing the entire building from a functional three-dimensional module (column grid 7.2×7.2m for the education zone and 7.2×10.8m for the boarding school zone), designing the technical rooms as double height and taking expansion options into account.

The installations have been extended to nodes that are not yet needed. There are also lowered ceilings to make energy supply accessible in later phases. The program was formulated by the school in such a way that all spaces are a multiple of a certain number of meters.

This modularity is not only extended spatially but also in the installations. The program of technical areas, the refectory, laboratories, the boarding school and the sports program is organized in such a way that the content is related to each other and fits logically into the modular structure. For example, an inner street has been created with the spaces for working and learning on one side and the spaces for relaxing, living and meeting on the other.

It is a clear and readable structure also flexible for the future. For example, within this modular structure, the boarding school rooms can be converted into teaching rooms in the long term. The workshops are double height with space for extra mezzanine floors so that you can bring theory and practice even closer together. In Flanders, the square outside is often covered and located in a courtyard. The design includes an open outdoor square that connects to the centre of Bruges and the water.

Architecture
https://www.architectura.be/nl/nieuws/vti-brugge-krijgt-robuust-en-aanpasbaar-schoolgebouw-van-den-berg-architecten/

Interior design
https://eiffagebenelux.be/referenties/vti-brugge/

Client
https://www.scholenvanmorgen.be/project/vti-en-cvo-brugge

Realisation
https://youtu.be/P2q_i7_RXwQ

https://twitter.com/vtibrugge

Existing site
https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20220915_95097792