STW0020 - ANDERLECHT - Athénée Royal Leonardo Da Vinci
design: exterior spaces between school and neighbourhood
type: landscape
client: Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles
designteam open space: Studio Thomas Willemse
architecture: BOGDAN & VAN BROECK
stability: JZH
experts: Venac, The Space Factory
time: competition 2020
The six outdoor spaces of the school Leonardo Da Vinci have a similar scale as the other outdoor equipments in the block – a football field, a large allotment garden, basketball fields, … - it is part of an archipelago of neighbourhood functions in a large porous green park crossing the building block. Three of the outdoor spaces of the school are exclusive for the school as playgrounds, but the other three could become spaces of exchange and interaction with the neighbourhood. Each of these spaces of exchange could be considered as an outside room that makes the link with the public realm and gives access to the different activities housed in the school-complex: the secondary school, the theatre, the social restaurant, the caretaker, … Each of the spaces gets its own identity:
(1) The 'Cour des Platanes' is the neighbourhood lobby. It is the meeting point before the school's front door. Where you can have an informal chat at the end of a course or a theatre performance. In the centre, this slope is stepped to provide seating, at each step the gutter collects rainwater to the planting on the sides. In order to have a maximum area of use the plantations are introduced on the other surfaces: the blind walls with climbing plants and a continuous green ceiling – the canopy created by plane trees planted in a grid. The entrance area is no longer a forecourt oriented towards the school, but becomes a multi-directional meeting space with green walls and a green ceiling.
(2) The 'Patio des Gradins' is a playground. It is the playground of the homework school, the extension of the theatre workshop, ... with its own access from the street. In order to unify the space, the different levels are used to introduce a stand for an open-air class, a theatre show, ...
(3) The 'Dock des Mécaniques' is a free space for construction. All uses are possible. As on an industrial site, a few painted lines on the ground allow parking, but also occasional sports or manual activities.
These three spaces of exchange are between the school and the neighbourhood and give access to multiple functions and introduce a new atmosphere within the ensemble of the existing school.