CENTRAL COLLEGE UTRECHT

The Central College wants to offer its VMBO/LWOO+ students the security and integration they urgently need in the Utrecht Oost district. It is for this reason that education and building are now adhering to the same clustering principle: from single individual to transparent group. recht Oost is currently the subject of a restructuring process which incluses the vicinity of the new premises of the Central College. A reduction in land occupancy, more green areas and low detached buildings are intended to make the district sfer and more wolcoming. By switching to fixed teaching clusters, the Central College wants to endsure that individual students become more visible in the group. Not 1 of the 900 students, but 1 of Clusters which function independently and which can also fulfil a neighbourhood role. Both aims have been incorporated into the new building. From a central foyer, separate staircases leasd to thevarious distinctive education clusters. Each cluster has an internal layout and design that is adapted to its set role. Together the clusters do not so much constitute a building, but a campus, a conglomerate of buildings. It is like a separate village within the district, with its own shopping street, restaurant and hairdressers. After a long periosd of frost, a strong wind causes drifts of ice. Ice floes are seized by the wind and are crammed toghether, shifting upwards in defiance of gravity. When they meet obstacles, they can form ice dams: stop ends.Ice floes jump – like the uncertain life of young people in a big city. The school packs them toghether on floes and these become stop ends. And a melting ice floe reveals another side: a magnificent blue apparition. The parts of the building differ in height and there are no more than three floors, which ties in with the low-skyline character of the district. The schoolyard is enclosed on three sides and is layeredm in a blance between safe and open. The school also has its own roof garden, enxt to the bikes. Each cluster has its own access routes and lyout, like 6 mni-schools, as was requested. The sports hall is detached, with the changing rooms stacked to save space. Extreme layout flexibility is provided: ‘activated’ columns positioned on a grid of 7.20 m by 7.20 m not only support the construction but also accomodate the electricity and the air circulation. The air enters via the floors and is removed via the voids. Floor ducts at 3.60 m accommodate light fixtures, acoustic provisions, water and light. Arobust solution which means that no false ceiling is necessary. Practice-based learning: based on doing things! The neighbourhood will benefit as well. For example, the economics students run a restaurant and learn to wait tables at the same time. The school has its own bakery in the shopping street. Students studying Care and Welfare manage a hairdressers salon and a facility for massage treatments. Integration. A plan has been drawn up to enable students to help provide support to senior citizens who live in the district, with the focus on the technical jobs.