At the site of the Markenhage college, the new Campus Markenhage is realized with the existing Markenhage college that got renovated and extended with an extra wing for technical education and two new schools; the new Orion Lyceum and the Michael college, a Waldorf school. Together the three schools form the new Campus Markenhage.
The Markenhage is the big mother ship in the middle of the campus with on each side one of the two new wing mates. All three schools have a façade to the main street and connected park, together they form a new cultural axis as all cultural teaching spaces of the three schools are located next to each other along the street.
The Markenhage school has become a 2 level square with a patio in the middle by adding the new wing, with this the circulation of the existing building is improved so the 1000 students can find their way more easily. The new classrooms for Chemistry, Physics and Biology provide more possibilities for teaching these technical classes.
The new Orion Lyceum for 150 students is located to the south of the Markenhage building. The open education of this school requires all classrooms to be connected to each other. The central Auditorium connects the two levels; all other spaces are placed around the Auditorium with different levels of privacy. Some classrooms are only disconnected by a screen of bamboo sticks, other with glass walls or walls that can be fully opened. In this way all students are as much as
possible connected together, but at the same time they find privacy if necessary.
At the northern side of the Markenhage building, the new Waldorf School is made. The 350 students will find their classrooms in a three
story building around a central Auditorium. With the theme of Head/Heart/Hands, all classrooms are placed. At the ground floor the ‘Hands
on’ classrooms are placed like wood and copper workplaces, including an outside workshop but also a new gym. The ‘Head’ classrooms for
languages, math, history and other typical rooms for concentration are placed on the outside of the building. Around the center core all creative
rooms are organized like theater, music, painting and drawing. These are known as the ‘Heart’ rooms.
From the outside the old and new buildings should grow together visually. With the existing red bricks and wooden window frames, two different kinds of FSC wood were added to the pallet (Jatoba and Louro Gamela) as well as natural slate and Aluminium window frames with a brown orange tone.