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A secondary school on IJ-plein in Amsterdam-Noord
Text. Text as narrative. Project as dialogue. Building as conversation between programme and context.
The brief was to design a secondary school in Amsterdam-Noord. The design process became an intensive search for answers and a presentation of doubts. The chosen site is in the middle of a residential area, IJ-plein, at a place where two different orientations of housing blocks converge, separated by an empty green carpet. The two contrasting patterns and directions did much to define the idea for the form and scale of the urban volumes in the new design. The layout is one of many four-storey cubes of variously sized classrooms. These cubes are linked at ground level by a 'plinth' of communal facilities. The twisted positions of the cubes shape the elevated outdoor squares and narrow streets between them. Bridges connect the volumes at the third and fourth floors. The layout as a whole guarantees great freedom in use and interpretation.
Text. Text as image. Building as composition of images. Images as part of memory. Memory as imagination. Memory as interpretation.
Considering the border between building and exterior. Trees as a blanket for the school. Trees as a blanket for the surrounding houses (1). Forming volumes, splitting volumes, adding volumes, searching for the dialogue between volumes (2,3). Physical necessity, reverse navigation, reducing to the essence, relating interiors (4,5). Retaining space, giving meaning, shaping school playgrounds (6). Interior, separating, connecting, simultaneously separating and connecting (7,8). Seeking a balance, moments of isolation, forgetting the exterior, the sky in evidence, occupant, alone in a space with others (9). Questions about the façade, questions, where to repeat, what rhythm, what scale, what exception, what to concede (10,11).
The figures in brackets refer to the sources of inspiration
1 primary school, Legnica, Poland
2 Venice, Italy
3 Dominican Motherhouse, Louis Kahn
4 Rome, Italy
5 Sondrio, Italy
6 Brion-Vega Cemetery, San Vito d'Altivole, Carlo Scarpa
7 Villa Badoer, Andrea Palladio
8 Canova Sculpture Gallery, Carlo Scarpa
9 Fronleichnamskirche, Aachen, Rudolf Schwarz
10 multi-family house, Flims, Switzerland, Rudolf Olgiati
11 canal house, Ghent, Belgium
Place of education: TU Delft | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Mechtild Stuhlmacher, Ronald Janssen, Tony Fretton, Sjap Holst, Jan De Vylder, Mark Pimlott
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