Sintlucas college | cepezed

For many years, fundamental physics research was carried out in the former Philips Natlab in the Strijp S area in Eindhoven; developments include the compact disc and the DVD. From a design by cepezed, a transformation is now taking place to create the Sint Lucas college for creative-technological and entrepreneurial studies for lower and intermediate vocational education. The school is also seeking to form explicit connections with the many creative organizations and companies that have settled in the area since the departure of Philips. Also within the school itself, everything is geared towards generating a real creative community. The architectural design serves this aim amply by means of a spacious arrangement where functions are linked in a coherent and well-considered way. In both spatial and functional terms, there is a wide diversity of rooms, ranging from theory classrooms to practical and instruction areas, from consultation areas to interview rooms for the teachers and from individual study cubicles to the building’s large communal heart. The fundamental structure is based on the original development, which had an essential structure of two elongated two-storey strips of buildings with a series of pavilions on the north side of each strip. On the south side, the strips were connected by a building block that houses the cultural organization Plaza Futura, with which the school will be entering into an intensive exchange in the future. The new middle zone to be built, which includes the heart of the building, is completely oriented towards cross-fertilization: with others within the school, but also with the outside world. To that end, a commercial street has been included with facilities such as a specially equipped print-shop that students and external parties can both use, and the creative studios for photography and audio-visual editing can also be hired by others outside school hours. Access to both the existing buildings and the high new-build in between, at the head of the site opposite Plaza Futura, is organized from the multifunctional heart of the building, which includes functions such as a restaurant, exhibition space, assembly and performance hall. On the principle that ‘seeing work, makes you work’, but also for orientation purposes, a stimulating, differentiated spatial experience and a high incidence of natural light, considerable transparency has been introduced to the complex. The new and existing buildings are clearly distinguishable and visibly each has their own characteristics and value, while together they also form a single entity in an unemphatic and natural way