Nursery and primary school Country of Now

Project support I Collaboration
Technical advice I EPR

New building of a nursery and primary school, multifunctional cluster with gymnasium and multipurpose rooms in Deurne.

The project
The school connects to a four-storey apartment building by means of a gate with a roof. A fence provides access to the school and the playground for pedestrians and bicycles. On the street facade, next to the covered playground, the multipurpose rooms and the refectory are situated on the ground floor, which can be joined together over the full width of the space by means of a mobile wall. The gym is elevated above the multifunctional space, giving the plinth on the street an open and attractive appearance.

The building is functionally divided into a broadly deployable multifunctional part with the gymnasium and the multifunctional spaces, a school part with the primary and nursery school and a semi-public part with administrative spaces.

Details
Atypical in the execution phase of this project was the large-scale archaeological study before the beginning of the works, which eventually led to considerable additional earthworks. Due to the discovery of old ammunition on the site, the entire site had to be scanned for safety reasons.

The presence of a large old poplar on the site also caused quite a stir. Initially, the tree was integrated into the design, but in consultation with the adjacent airport it turned out to cause safety problems for the flight routes. Eventually, the environmental plan was adapted, new trees were planted and the poplar was recycled in the form of playground equipment. This whole procedure also had its impact on the term and final cost.

Bureau Bouwtechniek is responsible for the building technical support of the architects from the competition stage:

• the technical assistance during the design process,  
• the layout of the building specifications, 
• the estimate, 
• the monitoring of execution. 

BB also takes care of the EPB reporting.

Team BB: arch. Michaël De Roeck, arch. Ilse Deckmyn, ir. arch. Jona Van Steenkiste