The new building is situated on a narrow plot, perched between the busy railway lines at The Hague HS Station and the Waldorp Street. The position, close to the public transport node is an excellent strategic choice: the school campus that is formed here in conjunction with The Hague University of Applied Sciences, the student and entry level housing of the DUWO and the resulting social life, is directly connected to all forms of (public) transport and is situated in the middle of the city.
The building forms a powerful and (Mondriaan like) colourful completion of the square, the Leeghwaterplein, and seen from the train is acts as a showpiece for ROC Mondriaan. The building has a grid shaped concrete façade in which the characteristic colours of the ROC have been filled in. This forms a powerful unity with the windows. An arcade follows the pedestrian route from the HS Station to the dwellings and the Mega-stores. Large glass areas along the arcade provide a view into the school: transparency and a display window for vocational training are combined here with increased social safety.
Flexibility The building's is designed with a floor plan based on a 7.2 metre framework, to facilitate future conversion into offices based on 1.8 meter units. By choosing spans without columns, from the façade to the cores, the layout of the school is adaptable for future schooling insights. This also makes the building more sustainable. The building has two main volumes each with its own core with ‘spiral stairways' and all support functions. This means that the complex could in the future be leased as two individual office building sections. The façade elements and window divisions are based on a framework of 1.8 x 1.8 metres. These elements consist of white concrete elements with deep reveals, which are alternately filled with windows and coloured panels. The repetition of concrete façade elements combined with an "arbitrary" pattern of coloured panels (5 Mondriaan colours: red, blue, yellow, light grey and dark grey) together with the windows, creates a feeling of boundlessness.
Layout/ Interior The classrooms are situated around the two central cores. The building has a central entrance with a main stairway that brings the students to the 'Mondriaanstraat' where they continue on their way, entering their school domain via the spiral stairways.
Footbridge LIAG also designed the footbridge that connects the ROC Mondriaan building to the building at the Waldorpstraat Leeghwaterplein. The bridge is mainly used for catering supplies from the main kitchen in the main building. It can also be used for dry transport from one to the other building.
