PRIMARY EDUCATION CENTRE ‘HET PALET’
COMMISSION
The municipality of Langedijk wanted an existing primary school to become a community school with all school and daycare facilities in one common housing. It makes it a centre of the district, the town square where people meet and work together. Obviously during the construction phase, the school must be able to keep running and have minimal nuisance. The other functions came over from the village of Noord-Scharwoude.
CONCEPT
MEET THE PARENTS
The community school “Het Palet” (The Palette) accommodates all school and childcare facilities from 0 to 12 and thereby functions as a centre in the district. Meeting and collaborating were the themes on which the design has been based. The added value of a multifunctional accommodation is only evident when people really meet. By adding a central hall at the school and so connecting all facilities, meeting is facilitated the best. A two-level new building forms a transition between the small-scale low-rise building on the one side and the relative large scale on the other side of the location. In this way a void has not only been filled programmatically, but in an urban way as well.
In the spacious hall, where all functions are addressed to, especially the large wooden staircase catches the eye. It can be used as a grandstand when performances and events are organized. The tiled roof of the old school hall still inserting, a corrugated steel roof on laminated wooden beams, robust materials and colour schemes give variety of liveliness and tranquillity. Through large glass windows there are views on the two playgrounds surrounded by toddlers and preschoolers. It makes the space deployed for multiple purposes and can be compared with the atmosphere of a village square. In the design, light, materialization and colouring the atmosphere is pursued. It keeps the building in a good shape in the long term.
| LOCATION: | NOORD-SCHARWOUDE, NL |
| CLIENT: | MUNICIPALITY OF LANGEDIJK |
| DESIGN: | 2003-2004 |
| REALISATION: | DECEMBER 2006 |
| SIZE: | NEW 3.350 M2 GFA, RENOVATION 200 M2 GFA |
| CONSTRUCTION COST: | € 3 MLN EX TAXES (2006) |
