Vituscollege

new expansion and renovation of school building

​​

Vituscollege is a secondary school for HAVO, VWO, and Gymnasium students, located in a transition zone between a historic residential area and a nature reserve with parks, gardens, and sports fields.
The school's expansion fits into this context. The landscape qualities of the design prevailed over our architectural ambitions. The building is a simple box on legs. We chose to place the new building next to the existing school and connect them with a glass walkway. This has resulted in a renewed campus-like structure, which offers the students a loosely arranged space.

Preserving the sports fields on the school grounds was an important wish of the client. To achieve this, the extension was raised and the artificial turf field runs under the building. In this way, the sports fields are spatially and visually connected. The grandstand steps are also located under the building and offer a view of the large sports field.

​

The new volume is compactly organized, with a basic system of corridors. It has a sober design, with a main supporting structure of prefab concrete elements and corrugated steel sheets for the facades. The facade height has also been kept as low as possible. In order to achieve the required ceiling height, these could not be lowered. Instead, they have been fitted with acoustic spray coating.
These measures, and the elevation of the extension, created the physical and financial space to further develop the site with artificial turf practice fields and a grandstand.