The new school campus Sint-Jozef is situated in a strategic location between the ring road and the open agricultural landscape, where infrastructure and nature intersect. With its elongated silhouette, the school reinforces the visual axis of the site and establishes itself as a recognisable landmark on the urban edge. Rather than being conceived as an autonomous building object, the project is understood as a coherent landscape structure in which architecture, movement and open space are carefully interwoven.
The design is organised around a clear architectural composition consisting of three legible elements: a transparent and active plinth, a compact upper volume containing the classrooms, and a semi-translucent sports hall that appears as a luminous beacon along the edge of the campus. Together, these volumes form a strong and recognisable ensemble that responds carefully to the scale and openness of the surrounding landscape.
The ground floor accommodates the collective and practice-oriented functions of the school. Workshops, social spaces and sports facilities are housed within a plinth that opens itself generously towards its surroundings. Large glazed façades reveal the daily life of the school and transform the practice rooms into showcases for hands-on education. The central atrium acts as the social heart of the campus and establishes visual relationships between interior and exterior on multiple sides.
Above this lively base, the classroom volumes are conceived as robust linear bars that combine compactness with optimal daylight access. Their generous proportions allow circulation spaces to evolve into flexible “learning streets”: informal places for encounter, collaboration and shared use. Long horizontal window openings frame views of the surrounding landscape and continuously strengthen the relationship between users and nature.
The project combines robustness with flexibility through a modular structural system of concrete columns and beams, complemented by demountable interior partitions and durable, low-maintenance materials. The upper façades are clad with recycled PVC panels, whose changing interplay of light and shadow gives the building a dynamic appearance while simultaneously contributing to a circular and CO₂-negative building envelope.
The landscape completes the campus experience. Arrival routes for pedestrians, cyclists and cars are carefully orchestrated within one continuous green framework, in which the visual axis functions not as a boundary but as a spatial structuring element. Building and landscape merge into one integrated campus environment focused on wellbeing, interaction and future-oriented learning.
