Primary school Lozen


Lava architecten

Vrije Basisschool Lozen (enlarged view in image gallery)

Photos: Lava architecten

  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen - overview
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen - Klaslokaal
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen - Circulatieruimte
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen - Circulatieruimte
  • Vrije Basisschool Lozen - Turnzaal
  • Status:

    Design

  • Education type:

    Free Subsidised Education

  • Education level:

    Primary Education (pre-school + primary)

  • Address:

    Hamonterweg 136-138, 3950 Bocholt

  • Client:

    Board of Mayor and Aldermen of Bocholt & Catholic Primary Education Lozen

  • Keywords:

    Passive building

  • Programme:

    9 classes, playrooms, sanitary facilities, storage space, multi-purpose entrance hall, sports hall/community room, staff room, cafetaria/refectory, community functions, space for afterschool childcare

  • Area:

    3024m2

  • Number of classrooms:

    9


Passive school and community house under the church tower

The outdated rooms of the privately-run nursery and primary school in Lozen have been unsatisfactory for quite some time now. The parochial hall and community centre are in urgent need of renovation as well. This double need has resulted in a joint building project of the municipal authority of Bocholt and the school board.

A new nursery and primary school, a meeting house and rooms for community activities will be built on the church square along the Hamonter road. The old parsonage and the school master’s house, both listed buildings, are renovated and extended with new buildings. The buildings are constructed fairly closely to the Hamonter road, as a buffer against traffic and to make space for a playground on the other side. In order to alleviate the great building density along the road, the buildings are fragmented and customised to the listed buildings. By playing with blind facades, the existing buildings are accentuated and the new functions are deliberately oriented towards the newly designed town square.

The programme of this project is grafted onto the principles of the community school: a partnership between the school, childcare, social organisations and the neighbourhood. This reveals itself in a fl exible and multi-purpose use of the buildings (the school’s sports hall is opened to community organisations after school hours and at noon the children eat in the cafeteria) and in a joint use of spaces. The concept of outdoor space is equally important. The town square is upgraded to the new heart of community life. It provides room for markets, weddings, funeral processions, exhibitions, and a play park which is interwoven with the school playground. A subtle play of volumes, gates, hedges and differences in level creates the transition between the public church square and the enclosed outdoor spaces for the school and childcare.

The new construction of the school was selected by the Flemish Government as one of 25 pilot projects for passive school buildings. The initial architectural and urban planning principles were preserved, but the architects had to make a number of strategic choices in order to realise a passive school. The concept of the school is based on the building’s orientation. The north-south eastern facades are covered with glass, wherever possible, so as to generate suffi cient heat gains as soon as the sun rises. The north-south western facades, on the other hand, are as closed facades, in order to prevent overheating when the sun is in the west.

The whole building complex is conceived as a massive concrete-poured building. This makes it possible to construct the various forms quite easily, and at the same time it can serve as the fi nish. The thermal inertia of concrete can level out the temperature peaks. On the hottest days the teachers will manually place the windows in tipping position after school hours to let the cool night air stream along the concrete slabs. In this way the users are actively involved in the use of their passive school building.

Apart from the passive story, the project also fulfi ls an exemplary role in terms of sustainability in general: FSC-labelled wood, environment-friendly stripping products, rainwater recovery for the sanitary facilities, green roofs as buffer, etc. all contribute to the realisation of a sustainable school building.