architecture now and The Future: DP6

The St. Nicolaaslyceum forms an integrated part of society, has ambitiously modern views and an open-minded outlook where education is concerned. Sports and culture are the spearheads that make the school stand out. Based on a vision that stimulates education and likes to offer its students a challenge, the design has resulted in a building that offers both security and challenges while supporting the educational concept. There is room for a wide range of cultural expression: the central atrium can be used as a theater with the bleacher stairs, there are exhibition walls and showcases.

The concept of sports has been integrated in the building as a whole. Sunken below ground level, the sports accommodation offers extensive sports facilities, while on the outside it is covered with basketball pitches that students can use during their breaks. The central atrium connects the various spaces and provides ample light and air while making the building easy to understand and navigate. The concept of Discover as you Learn is made visible in the building by the large diversity of working and teaching environments, the visibility of the supporting structure and systems, and by an interactive panel that visualises the school’s sustainability level.

Interwoven

The new building of the St. Nicolaaslyceum is located along the Amsterdam South Axis, where the Beethoven District meets the Beatrix Park. Its outside areas make the school into an inseparable part of its surroundings. The central atrium is oriented towards the park and the public square, two directions that converge in the atrium to convey a sense of space. External spaces fan out through the building and can become playing field, urban balcony, trial garden or roof terrace for outdoor experiments. The sports hall has been turned around to create a gradual entrance route from the Beethovenstraat.

The large expanse of steps provides seating to make the space suitable for performances. The dark grey tone of the building’s plinth blends in with the outdoor space. The pale green stripes of the educational level above it feature a soft relief that echoes the willows in the park. The rounded corners and the gradual transitions between internal and external spaces give the building a soft and welcoming look. The Mirror Tree by artist Anouk Vogel on the large glass facade almost literally pulls the park into the atrium and across to the more urbanised south side.

Giving shape to an educational concept

The central atrium rises through five floors to form the heart of the St. Nicolaaslyceum. This is where everybody enters the building, where students have their break on the bleachers, where theatre productions are staged, and from where students and teachers fan out into the rest of the school building. Rising from the oak bleacher steps, the central staircase spirals upwards around the grand lobby like an aubergine carpet. Each of the floors offers a view of the central lobby, making it a perfect point of reference as well as creating a sense of intimacy and security inside the compact building.

On the upper floors, the classrooms are arranged on the outside, surrounding multifunctional open areas. At the top of the bleacher stairs, the multimedia centre sits below the mezzanine space that stretches upwards to the atrium roof on the park side to the north. The interior elements for the restaurant, the staff room and the multimedia centre were designed in close consultation with the school’s students and staff.

Sustainability

The St. Nicolaaslyceum is designed with a high target level of sustainability on mind. The all-in design approach to architecture, functionality, supporting structure, systems and building physics has resulted in a highly compact, sustainable, flexible and optimised educational facility. A compact building, optimised use of available daylight, overhangs and sun blinds in the east, south and west facades, daylight-controlled high-frequency lighting, and naturally durable materials are all low-tech applications that have been integrated into the overall design.

More technologically involved solutions such as underground heat and cold buffering in combination with an active concrete core in the floors, a balanced and carbon dioxide-controlled ventilation system with heat recovery (and a very high efficiency of 90%) as well as photovoltaic roof panels contribute to make this a highly sustainable low-energy building. What’s more, this sustainability is visualised by means of an ‘energy mirror’ to show the students what the actual effects are.

Location: Amsterdam, Holland

Architects: DP6

Project Team: Richelle de Jong, Chris de Weijer & Robert Alewijnse, Ines van Binsbergen, Harrie Hupperts, Allard de Goeij, Ron van Logchem, Rik den Heijer, Diana de Kroo, Tim Castelijn, Bjorn Bleumink, Jimmy van der Aa, Sarina Gomez

Contractors: J.P. van Eesteren

Area: 12,000 sqm

Year: 2012

Client: Stichting V.O. Amsterdam-Zuid

Photographs: Jeroen Musch

The new control building is situated in the vast and cultivated landscape of locks, grass and water. The building's size is small when set against its surround-ings, but becomes more a part of the entire whole by including into the design a few paths that connect the building with the surrounding functions.

Moreover, the size of the ground floor is visually enhanced by a few schanskorven bulwarks. The ground floor is covered with a grass roof, hence embedding the building into the landscape.

The administrative building, located in the area above the grass roof, boasts characteristic slanting facades. The glass east and west facades are turned in such a way to create an optimal view of harbour and locks.

The closed south facade forms a whole with the roof and offers protection against heat and sun. The focus was on a high level of sustainable construction, using recycled and recyclable materials that match the rugged nature of the environment.

The ground floor uses prefab concrete elements clad with gabions. The upper levels feature a glazed timber structure. In view of the high internal heath load, the building is primarily designed to keep cool.

The roof and the south facade have been kept slightly apart from the building itself, the space in between being ventilated with ambient air. On the east and west sides the roof juts out above the building to reduce incoming solar radiation and safeguard a clear view.

The heating and cooling system uses a water heat buffer. During the summer months cold is extracted from the buffer and heat released into it. In the winter the heat is extracted from the buffer.

If necessary the lock water can be used as a source of heat or cold by means of a heat pump. During the winter heat is recovered from the ventilation air.