College Waregem

Replacement new construction for a secondary school in Waregem

The secondary school in Waregem is organised around large, closed courtyards. The concept for the extension aims to optimise the valuable yet limited space that the school offers, while opening up its relationship to the city. The urban block folds open to a front garden, forming a new typology.

In the concept of a community school, third parties can use the school facilities. The spaces can be used in various configurations, both inside and outside the school. In this way, the choice was made to have a physical relationship with the sports hall and the multifunctional space is upgraded to a set of spaces including the dance hall, the agora, the forum and the front garden.

The organising element is the concrete external skeleton, meaning that all the circulation takes place in an outdoor climate. With this, the movements of the pupils can be felt in the public space.

The classrooms slide into this skeleton like climatised boxes. The result is a strong interweaving of the outdoor space with the light-filled classrooms. On the ground floor there is an open learning centre and a dance hall. On the first and second floors there are thirteen classrooms and a quiet room overlooks the surroundings on the third floor.

• client Campus College Waregem
• location Waregem
• date 2019
• status finished
• icw Atelier d’architecture Pierre Hebbelinck – Pierre De Wit (design phase) / robuust ao
• realisation BBC building company, GLK
• photography Stijn Bollaert
• team NU Karel Verdonck, Freek Dendooven