ZuidWestHoek College Ossendrecht

EDUCATIONAL,

ZuidWestHoek College

Ossendrecht

Situated on one of the old dunes along de Schelde the town of Ossendrecht (Usse=dune/Drecht=ford) lies in a green environment. The exact position of the new ZuidWestHoek College is inside one of the open spaces inside a nearby forest.
Three main themes have shaped the school’s mass, structure and organization of the educational program: Sustainability, Profile and Safety.

To meet with the need to make the school as sustainable as possible we started by organizing all the different spaces inside the school in close connected to each other.
Although the volume is very compact (gross net ratio = 1,38) there is much room between the educational spaces for movement, to meet and also to have good interior and exterior views.

The flexible structure of the building is based on a rational grid made of freestanding concrete columns and floors. In that way, the school in time is able to make spatial changes in accordance with changes in their educational program.

VMBO ZuidWestHoek College
Onze Lieve Vrouw ter Duinenlaan 1
4641 RM Ossendrecht

www.sgboz.nl/Zuidwesthoekcollege/home.aspx

Client: Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs, Tilburg
Program: Preparatory secondary vocational school
Projectmanagement: Hevo bv, Den Bosch
Design: Winfried van Zeeland with Jaap van Es, Gerrit Everding, Michel Zethof (Van den Berg Kruisheer Elffers)
Contractor: Fraanje aannemingsbedrijf, ’s-Heer Arendske
Completion: 2012
GFA: 6885 m2
Photography: Han Hermkens (Image&Motion)

By making a compact volume, the amount of facade surface is minimalized and, together with the use of the proper materials the exploitation costs are decreased with 35%.

Distinctive for this preparatory secondary vocational school (VMBO) is the way sport (bicycle/spinning) is integrated in the educational concept. To underline this two sport halls are part of the school. They are situated on the first floor.

To really integrate the school into the landscape bicycle tracks are lead out in the forest. Together with a special exterior lighting plan, a clear entrance and a lot of transparency both outside and inside the environment is a safe place to learn.

To make the building’s exterior attractive the school wanted a colorful facade. Instead of using just one color we decided to use a specific range of colors in small scale elements. In this way, the building is in dialog with nature in a different way depending the specific season. The color facade is also used in parts of the interior walls in such a way that inside and outside is intertwined.

Teacher:
‘The classrooms are bright, are big enough and from an acoustic point of view so much more comfortable than our old school. And together with a magnificent view towards the surroundings it is great to work and learn here’.