BDP appointed to design a ‘House In The Polder’ for Dutch education institution

The Zuyderzee Lyceum is a public school with an education structure designed to nurture talent, develop skills and create passionate, knowledgeable young people. The school’s new 3000m²  building is being developed as a green, sustainable, education environment within the green polder landscape surrounding Lemmer, situated in the north of the Netherlands and will provide space for up to 355 students.

The building will be delivered using a timber structure, designed to interweave with the natural landscape. The new “house in the polder” will become the most recognisable, building in the area, bringing new facilities for students, teachers and local people.

Alongside its partners, BDP is designing a modern, state of the art educational space, conceived as a healthy and sustainable school building that offers space for home-based education at VMBO, HAVO and VWO level, in a familiar environment.

The building will have two separate hearts - a social heart where the students can meet and a quiet heart around which the classrooms fold. To meet the school's need for educational spaces where learning can intertwine and large and small groups frequently alternate, the building will be conceived as a flexible facility, where classrooms, niche social spaces and larger learning plazas will be connected. This will provide a dynamic mix of theory, learning and practical training within a single building.

The design will be sympathetic to the black wooden barns that are scattered around the area, using a biobased facade of burnt wood that folds to form a silhouette around the roofs of a number of ‘houses’. Vertical fins of preserved coniferous wood will deliver a warm contrast to the dark silhouettes and the sun-exposed facades will naturally deflect sunlight to give the building rhythm and identity. The fins will also offer the students privacy and shelter and combine with optimal daylight conditions to create an unobstructed view of the polder.

PV panels on the south flanks of the roofs and a low-tech system for ventilation will provide a sophisticated building in which sustainability and circularity naturally strengthen education. Each internal area will have a direct link to one or more outdoor classrooms which will offer space for research, experiments and art workshops, strengthen the connection with the environment and actively involve the polder landscape in education.

On the north side of the building, an atrium staircase will overlook a green schoolyard and the adjacent sports fields. The staircase will be used as a meeting place for students and connect the learning plazas and mezzanines on the first floor with short walkable routes from the entrance. The auditorium will be directly connected to the schoolyard where the natural landscape of the polder will be used to form a place to relax on the waterfront and spaces for children to play sports.

The design will be tailored for the needs of those who will work there, not only responding to the school’s current way of teaching and learning, but also adding in flexibility to adapt to future changes in education. The design also leaves room for the students to give their own interpretation. For example, the students will design and make their own seating areas within the building. Vegetables will be grown in a dedicated vegetable garden which will be used in the teaching kitchens and a working group is already growing plants to be used the green schoolyard.