De Plataan

Elementary school, Bennekom

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
2023,24 / timeframe – 6 months
Team: Marita Bijlsma, Thomas Buijs, Maria Rohof

During my time at Atelier FRONT I worked on a variety of projects in different phases such as the sketch design (SO) and the definitive design (DO). I was mainly involved in the definitive design of the elementary school De Plataan in Bennekom for which the office was commissioned by the Mevrouw Meijer Foundation and had previously made the design. For this project I worked on the definitive design phase. This consisted of designing the interior and the fixed furniture, sketching the air handling structure, drawing ceiling plans, facade fragments and details.

CNS de Plataan, originally a 1950s rational corridor school with spacious and bright classrooms, had become cluttered with annexes that reduced its quality and functionality. The redesign respects the past while creating a future-oriented school. The project preserves the original classrooms for the younger kids and introduces a new compact building with dedicated clusters for the students of higher age groups. The new design enhances learning by reducing noise disturbances, repositioning classrooms and creating learning squares that can be used by the different class groups. The combined old and new structures now embrace a central schoolyard in front of the school, strengthening the urban fabric and potentially serving the community.