The new Frits Philips lyceum-mavo school in Eindhoven was officially opened for the students and, a founding father of the lighting company located in Eindhoven, is an example for the school who teachers. Frits Philips stood for: effort, ambition and involvement. Values that the school strives for today. Therefore the school has been named after him. This was also a design principle for LIAG architects.
The school has four education curricula; Sport, Culture, Entrepreneurship and Exact sciences including a ‘brainport’ centre for among other things robotics. The building is defined by learning areas each with their own lockers and workstations, that function as homebases. The higher and junior classes have their own stairs and remain separated from each other. This way the students from the junior classes can work at their own pace from their homebase and get familiarised with the ‘new world’. LIAG has created a design which preserves the environmental scale and sense of belonging that was requested by the school. Also the development of the students and personal contact with the teachers received special attention.
The building has a central entry where the small scale remains recognisable. From here, the students can take the stairs to their homebase and walk further on to the atrium. The atrium is the central space which is used as gathering place where all the floors open onto. From this atrium each of the four curricula are showcased. The wide stairs are divided by a glass facade creating visual continuity. This stair can also be used as tiered seating for presentations and lessons for larger groups. Workstations for the teachers are spread throughout the building and the management is visibly located adjacent to the atrium. The building will become a place where you can easily meet each other.