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British School
British School
Laan van Leidschenveen, Den Haag, Netherlands
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British School
Laan van Leidschenveen, Den Haag, Netherlands
The new campus for the British School in Leidschenveen, near the Hague, is taking the form of an easily accessible cultural enclave within the rectilinear Dutch residential polder landscape.De Dijken is the last section to be developed in the Leidschenveen VINEX location near The Hague, between the A4 and the A12, to the east of the Prins Clausplein interchange. The urban development plan provides a layout which links up with the one-time polder landscape and with the long, straight-as-an arrow lines of irrigation ditches and avenues of trees.The British School in the Netherlands is responding to the growing demand for international high-quality education based on the traditional standards and values of the British education system. Good behaviour and respect for others and the world provide the context for an educational programme focused on personal development. It is a refined international enclave within the Netherlands, its host country.On the outside, the rectangular campus aligns itself to the frameworks provided by the polder landscape. It is like a small island surrounded by its own roads which streamline the daily comings and goings of students. On the inside, the school has created its own culture and the students can learn in safety and in direct contact with nature and one another.The rational landscape of the Dutch polder. The man-made solidity of the dykes, the straight lines which regulate the water under endless cloudy skies. The Netherlands as complete artwork. But inside, on the sheltered campus, the ever-changing paintings of the English landscape gardens. Individual blossoming and growth; each view is unique, framed by uniform management.Long rows of poplars and the angular, formal outer facades in horizontally jointed brickwork echo the taut straight lines of the Dutch patchwork landscape. The classrooms are located on this periphery. Within these impressive frameworks there is a playful world of free shapes, wood and light. This is where the community meets in the halls and communal areas in direct contact with the expressive green inside world of the landscape garden.The main building with the primary school, the administration centre with ‘day care’ and a community building with sports facilities can be supplemented later with another primary school, a secondary school and a studio (theatre with 600 seats). Space has been left in the garden for a ‘folly’. The master plan regulates the parking problem during all the phases and ensures that the landscape concept remains intact each time.Each building is an inward and outward expression of what is going on, in an ensemble of stone and glass. Intimacy and enveloping are appropriate in a context of caring for the smallest members of the community, and for and the community as a whole. Stone envelops the fragile glass, repeating the theme of the campus. The community building ‘supports’, and it is here that the design provides a framework where the glass can ‘lean’ and find support. School children begin to sit up and pay attention, growing and reaching upward and by doing so discover the world: the glass follows their movement.
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