Old to new
GO! Education of the Flemish Community wishes to replace the existing educational and administrative infrastructure, which is located at various locations in the city of Hasselt, in the short and medium term with various new-build projects. The project of the new top sports school is part of this. This new top sports school for +/- 500 students, including a sports hall and synthetic turf pitches, will be provided on the 11th Linie school campus in Hasselt.
Ambitious
The gym’s program accommodates various sub-entities such as sports infrastructure, classrooms for both lower and upper classes and administration. The sports infrastructure includes a large sports hall, smaller sports halls, multipurpose space and outdoor sports facilities. Education in this school is provided from the age of 12. The high ambition has resulted in the largest top sports school in Flanders. The city of Hasselt has committed itself to the project and will also make use of the sports infrastructure.
1 + 1 = 3
In the design for the new building, it was decided to bring the larger entities together in a sports building and the smaller structures in an education building. The different structures of construction and technical areas on the one hand and the use outside school hours gave cause for this. The buildings are staggered in relation to each other so that they have a joint open space two by two.
A canopy connects the two opposite corners so that the two buildings together with the two open spaces form one entity. The open spaces are given their own identity with the program of a partly covered playground for the lower and superstructure on the one hand. Each open space also has a zone with a green structure that provides both a pleasant atmosphere and the necessary shade.
The structure of the canopy does not only provide a clear outline of the top sports school, but guides the student or employee to the two entrances of the two respective buildings. This improves the readability of the site.
Sport
A supporting program of changing rooms, lockers and storage rooms will be housed in the sports building together with the entrance on the ground floor level. In this way, these functions are also easily accessible via the playground and then the outdoor sports infrastructure. The smaller halls are buried half a level and the multifunctional space and large sports hall are half a level higher. The multifunctional space is located on the same level as the large sports hall, so that it can be used together or separately. This lends itself to use the facilities outside school hours as well.
Education
The education building is constructed in such a way that both the lower and upper classes can be separate entities with a separate staircase. The substructure and superstructure are therefore not separated horizontally, but vertically. The standard classrooms are downstairs, the more specialized classrooms upstairs. The specialized classrooms accommodate fewer students and the standard classrooms are therefore more accessible outside school hours. The administrative functions are also located on the ground floor, so that they are easily accessible. The ground floor level is divided in such a way that three separate “access flows” (administration, superstructure and substructure) can be organized.
Structure for a flexible future
The building structure is constructed in such a way that there is a structural middle core and a structural outer shell. This allows for some flexibility to be built in for the future, when the configuration of the classrooms has to be adapted to new teaching methods.
The buildings are constructed from massive structural elements in order to achieve sufficient mass. This makes the climate easier to control. The outer shell is constructed from a light timber frame construction. The advantage of this is that the building can be constructed extremely well airtight and soundproof with a good thermal insulating effect. This construction method also increases the net floor space.
- Location: Hasselt, Belgium
- Program: School
- Area: 8 299 m2
- Year: 2018 – 2020
- Status: Completed