'Braambos' Primary School Amsterdam
N2 Architecten
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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:
Waddenweg 83, 85, 87, 2134 Hoofddorp
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Client:
Municipality of Haarlemmermeer
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Programme:
classrooms, kindergarten, after-school care, sports hall, administration, school grounds
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Area:
2610m2
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Number of classrooms:
10
An informal child-friendly school building
The Braambos school is situated in the central strip of the Vinex location, Floriande. The IJtocht zone is a park-like strip where all district-supporting amenities are located. The building provides accommodation for a primary school with ten classrooms, a kindergarten, after-school care and a sports hall. The latter is also used by sport clubs and can be used separately from the school. The combination of these different functions results, on the one hand, in a multiple use of space, while on the other hand, the building is used at different times of the day and optimum use is made of the infrastructure. The building is a free-standing, monolithic structure and the various functions cannot immediately be distinguished from the outside. However, every function has its own name, entrance, letterbox and doorbell. The various playgrounds are situated around the building. Several sandpits and (wooden) playground furniture divide these squares up into smaller units. The plot is surrounded by a fence of 1.2 metres high with gateways that can be locked, and is camouflaged by a copper beech hedge. The flowering trees to be planted fit in with the vegetation in the surrounding residential area.
The building has an intake of children from the new residential area and the older district next to it. For the arrangement of the classrooms the future organisation of classes was taken into account. For this reason the classrooms are 10% larger than the required minimum of 50m2. The Braambos school is a leading school in the field of ICT education and computers are more directly integrated in the educational process. The classrooms are fitted with the necessary technical infrastructure so that a sufficient number of computers can be connected.
The design wants children to ‘climb up’ through the school. This is achieved by organising the programme around a rising and continuous route following the children through their school career. The different levels are interconnected with staircases and slopes so that it is possible to move through the building in all sorts of different ways. This collective space forms the heart of the school and is an informal place where the children can find their own place in the school, rather than having it imposed on them. Characteristic overhead lighting allows daylight into this area for circulation. The toilets and storage areas are clustered in large wooden boxes which have been placed in the heart of the building. Around these boxes, extra workplaces have been placed for group work or individual tasks. The rooms for the kindergarten are on the ground floor and have direct access to the playground, while the classrooms of the first years of the primary school are already disconnected from the ground and are further up. Finally, the oldest children are in the classrooms on the first floor, where the route ends in the auditorium which looks out over the district. The building is designed to be at the child's scale. A great deal of attention was devoted to detail and the materials used in the interior, using bright colours and sustainable materials. For example, in every classroom the windows are at the eye level of the children in that class and some areas are only 1.5 metres high. Because of the increasing height of ceilings towards the gymnasium, all the classrooms have different heights.