Together with contractor RIZ and Jorissen Simonetti architecten we participated in a design and build construction in the selection for a multifunctional building in ’s-Gravenzande that houses a combined day nursery and elementary school. The ambitious programme of requirements had been assigned a very low budget. And then also the set urban boundary conditions had to be complied with: one floor with a roof. It was therefore a challenge to realise the ambition and desired image within both the spatial scope and the financial restrictions. The design of the building follows the orthogonal structure of the neighbourhood, and has integrated the stepwise build of the adjacent buildings. This has created two separate squares for superstructure and substructure, which matches the wishes from the programme requirements.
The design of the building has a completely flexible layout. The exterior walls are loadbearing and therefore allow an open plan layout, which facilitates any future changes. The roof structure is presented as interlinked saddle roofs with an asymmetrical design. Towards the square the building conveys the impression of a row of hipped roofs which with regard to its scale makes the building fit in with the rear historic buildings. By the choice of roof shape the length effect of the volume is nicely interrupted, linking up with the scale of the users of this building: children aged 0-12 years. We would not want the school building to disintegrate into separate units and therefore chose to outline the building as an unequivocal volume. Materials for facade and roof are matching and roof overhangs are avoided.
