Project in Detail
Kees Boekeschool
Bilthoven, Netherlands
Snelder Architects, Hilversum, Netherlands
2008
THE KEES BOEKESCHOOL
The Kees Boekeschool is an educational establishment providing pre-school, primary and secondary educational. It was founded in 1926 by educational pioneer Kees Boeke.
The new building stands on the school’s sixteen hectare, park-like site and comprises 9200m2 of facilities for three levels of secondary schooling and an adjacent 3800m2 sports complex.
EDUCATIONAL AND SPATIAL CONCEPT
This unique educational establishment called for a building that would embody the school’s educational philosophy of ‘learning self-reliance’.
Every aspect of the educational concept developed by Kees Boeke in the 1920s is geared to self-motivation and a teaching method geared to enabling children to discover and correct their mistakes for themselves.
We were therefore keen to design a school that did not look like a school – no standard educational institution or high school, but a more informal and dynamic learning environment. We wanted to spread the learning experience across the site, both inside and outside the school buildings.
DESIGN
The new Workplace premises are as far removed as possible from the conventional, usually repetitive and monolithic school set-up. During the design process, the building programme was deconstructed and then reassembled as a series of discrete volumes. Also absent is the customary arrangement of identical classrooms along a corridor. Instead, we designed an open system of interwoven and interpenetrating indoor and outdoor spaces. This open and landscaped layout is well suited to the informal teaching methods practised here while at the same time ensuring that the school blends in with the natural surroundings.
The school building consists of two main volumes of different heights, linked at ground level by the schoolyard and at first floor level by a glazed pedestrian bridge. The western volume contains ‘learning domains’ (larger replacements for the classic classroom), grouped around a closed courtyard. On the other side of the open schoolyard is the eastern volume containing, among other things, the main entrance, the auditorium, an eye-catching theatre and the practical classrooms.
To the south of the school buildings is the sports complex. Although it is a separate building, it is clear from its form and materialization that it is part of a compact campus made up of school and sports facilities.
The structure is a combination of steel columns and concrete floor slabs. The 13-metre floor span allows for considerable flexibility in use. The facades are composed of copper-coloured, aluminium flat-seam sheeting and concrete tinted green by the addition of 4.5% copper oxide
Project and Client Name
Project: Kees Boekeschool
Client: Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap
Location:
Bilthoven, The netherlands
Design:
Snelder Architects, Hilversum, The netherlands
Designteam:
Janneke Snelder
Michiel Snelder
Anna Vlaming-Reitmanova
Erik Weerdesteijn
Gerben Bitter
Size of project
9.200 m2
Costs
Building costs: € 8.125.000,-- excl. VAT
Start date and completion date
Design: november 2003
Start: april 2006
Completion: august 2007
Lead Architect
Snelder Architects
Hilversum
Netherlands