Study Commission Client
ROCvA, Het Oosten BV
Design
2002
Program 13,000 m2 educational space
7,000 m2 housing
10,000 m2 public and commercial functions
Site 1.8 ha
Over the last 5 years and as part of an ongoing design project, S333 has been working closely with a school organisation, ROCvA, to research and design new types of multifunctional school buildings (community colleges) that are more integrated into their urban context.
This site for this community college lies in the centre of Amsterdam-Noord located beside a soon-to-be-completed metro station. The design proposal has three objectives (1) to position and shape the school building in relation to movement flows through the site (2) to spread mixed-use functions across the whole site at street level, thus animating all the surrounding streets and (3) to implement design ‘neutrality and flexibility’ to achieve a mixed-use building that can last and be adapted throughout the following 100 years.
All objectives play a key determining role in the organization of a building that combines elements of shopping mall design with traditional ‘urban passage’ to generate an integrated, 24/7 community-based school that functions for different users at different times of the day.
The standardization of construction grids, supported by the strategic positioning of service cores, entrance foyers and circulation zones addresses ROCvA’s ambition to have a robust school model that can survive internal changes and external market dynamics, while always presenting a dynamic façade to the surrounding streets.
>> Read more
Over the last 5 years and as part of an ongoing design project, S333 has been working closely with a school organisation, ROCvA, to research and design new types of multifunctional school buildings (community colleges) that are more integrated into their urban context.
This site for this community college lies in the centre of Amsterdam-Noord located beside a soon-to-be-completed metro station. The design proposal has three objectives (1) to position and shape the school building in relation to movement flows through the site (2) to spread mixed-use functions across the whole site at street level, thus animating all the surrounding streets and (3) to implement design ‘neutrality and flexibility’ to achieve a mixed-use building that can last and be adapted throughout the following 100 years.
All objectives play a key determining role in the organization of a building that combines elements of shopping mall design with traditional ‘urban passage’ to generate an integrated, 24/7 community-based school that functions for different users at different times of the day.
The standardization of construction grids, supported by the strategic positioning of service cores, entrance foyers and circulation zones addresses ROCvA’s ambition to have a robust school model that can survive internal changes and external market dynamics, while always presenting a dynamic façade to the surrounding streets.
ROCvA stands for ‘Amsterdam Regional Community College’, which covers Amsterdam and the nearby towns of Amstelveen, Hoofddorp and Hilversum. It is one of the largest Community Colleges in Europe, offering vocational education and training for 35,000 students in about 60 locations. Its long-term strategy is to re-locate all its regional facilities into a series of large, multi-functional buildings that are fully integrated with their surroundings.
On five challenging locations in Amsterdam, ROCvA commissioned S333 by to carry out urban and architectural studies. In the search for sustainable solutions, the contexts of each location directed the choice of vocational education and the mix of uses to link with the surrounding neighbourhood on each site.
The result of this working methodology produced different organisations of school buildings that mixed school activities and community-based functions in different ways.
<< Close details
