1324_PRINS DRIES
Walkable platform for the courtyard of a kindergarten
- Location :
- Antwerp
- Client :
- Stedelijk Onderwijs Antwerpen
- Cost :
- 140.000,00 EUR excl VAT
- Surface :
- 90 m2
- Team :
- AgwA
- Subcontractors :
- JZH & partners
- Planning :
- 2014
- Category :
- Completed
This tiny project addresses the lack of outdoor spaces for a local city-run kindergarten in a popular neighbourhood of the city of Antwerp. Precisely 100sqm have to be added to a small square courtyard flanked by three wings of classrooms and a party wall with a typically flemish pitched roof. The precision of the 100sqm lies in the regulatory needs and the economic constraints of the project.
Consequently, the first question is how to thoughtfully distribute the authorized roof surface in the courtyard. Negatively, it means that it should not disturb the quality of the generously glazed classrooms and the legibility of the late-modernist architecture of brick and concrete. Positively, it means that the platform should be an added value to the courtyard, and co-exist as an independent architectural object.
Will it be a peripheral gallery? A shelf along the party wall? A central square? A triangular shape is eventually proposed. Thus only touching the façades in three specific points: a corner, a column in the center of the composition, and the edge of the main door to the courtyard. The triangle is a kind of Fremdkörper in the school, as if landed in the courtyard by chance. However, it is carefully placed, reacting to a very precise geometric game. Coincidentally, it even echoes the Flemish stepped party-wall in a playful dialogue. And more importantly, it addresses the courtyard as a whole, to avoid dividing it in two parts or reducing its perception.
The second question addresses the construction method. It is a matter of money, and a matter of speed. Variations on modular steel constructions show that preparation time in the workshop and cost are not compatible with the constraints. Eventually, a simple ultra-fast hardening concrete slab on a grid of thin steel columns appears to be a very efficient solution both in time and cost, allowing to realize the entire platform over the two-month summer holidays.
The steel staircase braces the construction. A waterproof coating protects the concrete, while railings and an acoustic ceiling provide the final touches. One steel column pierces through the maintained sand box. The original concrete pavement, which was dismantled and stored, is eventually replaced. When the families come back in September, a new platform appears in the seemingly untouched courtyard.
Consequently, the first question is how to thoughtfully distribute the authorized roof surface in the courtyard. Negatively, it means that it should not disturb the quality of the generously glazed classrooms and the legibility of the late-modernist architecture of brick and concrete. Positively, it means that the platform should be an added value to the courtyard, and co-exist as an independent architectural object.
Will it be a peripheral gallery? A shelf along the party wall? A central square? A triangular shape is eventually proposed. Thus only touching the façades in three specific points: a corner, a column in the center of the composition, and the edge of the main door to the courtyard. The triangle is a kind of Fremdkörper in the school, as if landed in the courtyard by chance. However, it is carefully placed, reacting to a very precise geometric game. Coincidentally, it even echoes the Flemish stepped party-wall in a playful dialogue. And more importantly, it addresses the courtyard as a whole, to avoid dividing it in two parts or reducing its perception.
The second question addresses the construction method. It is a matter of money, and a matter of speed. Variations on modular steel constructions show that preparation time in the workshop and cost are not compatible with the constraints. Eventually, a simple ultra-fast hardening concrete slab on a grid of thin steel columns appears to be a very efficient solution both in time and cost, allowing to realize the entire platform over the two-month summer holidays.
The steel staircase braces the construction. A waterproof coating protects the concrete, while railings and an acoustic ceiling provide the final touches. One steel column pierces through the maintained sand box. The original concrete pavement, which was dismantled and stored, is eventually replaced. When the families come back in September, a new platform appears in the seemingly untouched courtyard.
