De wijnpers Leuven
TV Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen / Util
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Status:
Design
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Education type:
Provincial Education
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Education level:
Technical Secondary Education
Vocational Secondary Education
Arts Secondary Education
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Client:
Province Vlaams-Brabant, Leuven
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Contest:
Open Call
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Programme:
Secondary School De Wijnpers
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Area:
3473 m2
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Number of classrooms:
22
A rational school building as ‘belvedere’ on the historical winery site.
The 490-are site occupied by De Wijnpers in Leuven on the Mechelse Vest dates back to its historical existence as a vineyard belonging to the Abbey of the Keizerberg. Today, this provincial secondary school offers technical, vocational, and art education courses. The school counts 470 students in 5 departments: the first grade, horticulture, bio-tech, visual arts, and heating/sanitation courses. The provincial administration of Flemish Brabant has decided to tear down the old ‘Prof. Walraevens’ villa in order to make room for a new block of classrooms to serve the first grade. This new building will also accommodate the Centre for Adult Education ‘De Nobel’. A sports hall inside the building provides the missing link for the school where, until today, the events hall has had to serve as a gym. The new sports hall will also be used for after-school activities.
The terrain is sharply sloping and offers from above a striking panorama over the city of Leuven. By replacing the existing buildings along the Mechelse Vest, a maximum of open space is preserved. The new building will offer first-grade students their own ‘universe’ with their own playground on this large site. Kersten Geers and David van Severen have designed the new building as a link to the existing buildings along the edge of the Mechelse Vest, adopting, a bit contrarily, the old orthogonal structure of the historical vineyard. In contrast to the building for the higher grades, the playground is being located in front, rather than to the rear of the building.
The sports hall is hidden below the playground, oriented in such a way that it can take maximum advantage of northern light exposure. The students from the second and third grades are able to get to the sports hall via the main entrance area. As the sports hall has been slightly elevated, it has formed a small raised podium for the first-grade students, a kind of ‘belvedere’ where, from a distance, they can get a view on the city and observe the second and third grade students in action. The small, four-storey block of classrooms faces the city side. A large opening in the building frames the view from the playground on the city. The building is designed with a sober, straightforward corridor and staircase structure along which all classes are located, facing the city side.
From the playground, the students access the building via a central entrance. The staircase leads upwards to the theory classrooms, or down towards the sports hall and the practical/technical rooms. The school building itself is a robust construction with well-considered sequencing of classrooms overlooking the Leuven skyline. Through the intelligent planning of various types of classrooms, a flexible structure is created whereby it becomes possible to combine larger classrooms, time-out rooms, and activity rooms according to the needs.