Study Commission
Client
ROCvA
Bouwfonds Ontwikkeling
Design
2005
Program
12,000 m2 educational space
6,000 m2 apartments
4,000 m2 commercial and community functions
120 parking places
Site area
2 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.
The site for this new community college is in the east of the city and visible from the A10, Amsterdam’s main ring road. However roads, a canal and open wasteland that surround the site on all sides also isolate the site from its surroundings.
As a means to re-urbanise the greater area, S333 proposed to fill the ground floor of the building with a range of social and commercial functions. By attracting people to the building arriving by foot, car or public transport, the intention was to help ROCvA successfully integrate its facilities at both local and regional scales.
The five key elements of the programme sit like independent blocks above a plinth of collective parking. From a distance, the exterior façade is aimed at creating a new landmark in this distinctly characterless district of Amsterdam. The interior glass façades are designed to reflect light in different ways, depending the season and the angle of the sun.
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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.
The site for this new community college is in the east of the city and visible from the A10, Amsterdam’s main ring road. However roads, a canal and open wasteland that surround the site on all sides also isolate the site from its surroundings.
As a means to re-urbanise the greater area, S333 proposed to fill the ground floor of the building with a range of social and commercial functions. By attracting people to the building arriving by foot, car or public transport, the intention was to help ROCvA successfully integrate its facilities at both local and regional scales.
The five key elements of the programme sit like independent blocks above a plinth of collective parking. From a distance, the exterior façade is aimed at creating a new landmark in this distinctly characterless district of Amsterdam. The interior glass façades are designed to reflect light in different ways, depending the season and the angle of the sun.
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.
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