De Klimpaal
At the edge of the 19th-century building block, we want to densify the school.
That’s where it can happen. That’s where it belongs.
There, the larger scale of the school buildings meets the finer grain of houses and small apartment buildings. The administrative building and the three stacked classrooms form the link between these two systems. The new volumes borrow from what is adjacent. The new frontage along Paalstraat adopts the rhythm and articulation of the neighboring houses.
De Klimpaal presents itself as three houses but just a bit more robust. There is an unmistakable coherence between the three houses. They form an ensemble.
The whole is not shy about presenting itself as a public house.
A house with a garden. One that promises a tree reaching playfully over the garden wall.
The new buildings are also kindred to the existing school structures. There is a clear and generic coherence. The space between the buildings (and the canopy) benefits from this — it remains composed, calm, intimate, and pleasant.
Scaled to children.
Extension and renovation of elementary school De Klimpaal, GO!
Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
2015 - 2025
Technical engineering: BOTEC
Structural engineering: DS Engineering
Acoustic: Tractebel
School in the City
The municipality of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, with almost 95,000 inhabitants, is the fourth largest municipality in the Brussels-Capital Region. Along the Brussels-Charleroi Canal, the municipality connects to the heart of our Belgian and European capital. The conditions in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek are therefore urban.
Just a stone’s throw from the busy Steenweg op Gent and the stately Gemeenteplein, lies the Freinet school De Klimpaal, somewhat hidden behind a substantial garden wall. Behind this wall is a playground with a beautiful tree. The school wraps itself around this clear open space.
Quadrangle
Building is often inverted architecture. It is thinking about what is not there, about what remains open. The emptiness, the outside, the open space, the public space is the true interior.
What remains open determines the volume. Full or complementary. Complete. Complex.
Creating holes in the cheese and negotiating with the school, the building block, the city…
We consider the playground to be the most important room of De Klimpaal. The current emptiness, the quadrangle, largely remains intact. The place is calm, intimate, and offers appropriate shelter.
Open House
The generous emptiness above the garden wall is unique on Paalstraat. The building block literally folds back. The public character of the school is revealed through what is not there. It is evident that the entrance, the school’s entry, is located here. The gate is only minimally transparent, so the courtyard remains intimate. The natural emptiness remains a domestic public room.
In the volumes, we pierce large holes. Contraposition. What is empty remains sheltered. The solid is perforated. The school program is introduced on Paalstraat. The administration office, the principal’s office, the teachers’ room, and three classrooms become visible. The school reveals itself!
A high plinth, railing, planter, or internal terrace mediates the program with the public space—just like the neighbors. We borrow from the surroundings.
Photography Inyas Montesinos