Brede School - Aarle Rixtel | architecten-en-en

A schoolbuilding is a special building in a little village, because almost all the inhabitants have spent an important part of their life there.

This means that, as an architect, you can give children something for the rest of their lives, because everbody remembers his or hers old schoolbuilding. “The building as an adventure” was therefor the starting point of the design.

The Brede School is located in the heart of Aarle-Rixtel in the south of Holland. A fundamental part for the plan were the site-specific qualities like the many old trees and the existing playgrounds.

Beside the use of challenging form, we have chosen not to use obvious materials. Often raw, sometimes smooth, mostly unfinished and visibly attached the form a unity that does not leave people untouched.

The brickwork of the existing gymastics hall and the entire new schoolbuilding are finished in the same manner, with a thin film of mortar, called slempwerk. By using this kind of tradional local craft, the buildings form a coherent unity with an appearance like they've been there for years.

A Brede School has different users. “Together under one roof” was the basic thought for the lay-out of the total plan. We have chosen a distinctive  building with a small-scale charisma, where within the context of the entire building, all users can express themselves.

The main structure is based on a recurring building block of 50m2, which is connected for each independent user in a different way. This circuit determines its own identity, but because of the modular design, compatibility is garanteed in the future and growth and shrinkage can be captured.

The implementation of different angels of inclination into the slanted roofs, is a result of a maximum of spaciousness and variation.