'Forum 't Zand' Primary School Utrecht
VenhoevenCS
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Status:
Realized
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Education type:
Municipal Education
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Education level:
Primary Education (pre-school + primary)
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Address:
Pauwoogvlinder 12-24, 3544 Leidsche Rijn
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Client:
municipality Utrecht
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Keywords:
Community school
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Programme:
2 schools, 2 day nurseries ,after-school care, auditorium, leisure centre, sports hall, botanical garden
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Area:
7100m2
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Number of classrooms:
Public school: 16
Montessori school: 10
A microcosm for learning and playing
The forum ‘t Zand is a ‘brede school’ (community school) and consists of a publicly-run school, a Montessori school, two day nurseries, after-school care and a sports hall. Each of these has its own entrance in the complex. The playgrounds on the roof are also accessible by an outside staircase. Each school as a whole is inclusively accessible with a lift. After school hours, the collective facilities are transformed into a leisure centre for the community. By having the same spaces used by different users at different times and dividing the building up as efficiently as possible, there was enough space to create a botanical garden with plants and trees. Together with the auditorium and the sports hall, the botanical garden forms the multifunctional heart of the building. During school hours, the botanical garden is a covered playground; at other times it is a meeting place in the leisure centre for local inhabitants.
This community school is an important place for the surrounding residential area in development and is located in an orchard of fruit trees and archaeological park with Roman remains, old conservatories and the surviving brick ovens for the greenhouses. In order to leave the valuable remains and the surrounding nature intact as far as possible, it was decided to opt for a compact building with playgrounds on the roof. The design of the school building was inspired by a spaceship and resolutely points to the future in the middle of all these historical reminders. At the same time, it corresponds perfectly to the world of the children, which is increasingly based on film, the internet and games. “It’s more fun to go to a rocket than to school, particularly to a rocket which has made an emergency landing in your area.”
The two schools each have their own spatial identity. The organisation of the Montessori school is based on the street. The large classrooms are placed on either side of a linear space. The design of the public primary school, on the other hand, is arranged in accordance with the principle of an inner courtyard. All the classrooms are arranged around a central space. The classrooms in both schools are situated along broad corridors where small informal groups can also gather. In this way, the circulation space is also used as a library, study and computer room. The different schools are interlinked by the central area with the sports hall and the auditorium, which are used collectively.
The school was designed focusing on experience, and is therefore not only an educational building, but also a playground. The children’s imagination is stimulated by the large variety of spaces and the range and variation in the interior. The places for the children are alternately intimate and large, collective and individual. In the classrooms, there are variations on themes such as views, elevation treatment, the position of constructive elements, and consequently no two classrooms are the same. The classrooms for the lower, middle and upper school are divided equally along the corridors so that the pupils take an intellectual walk through the building over the years. In this sense, the building is conceived as a microcosm where children discover their boundaries in a playful way.