climate school

The public education organization GO! wanted to renew the school infrastructure on its campus in Bree (Belgium). In addition to drawing up a vision for the future of the school buildings, an important part of this assignment involved optimizing additional real estate development according to the project financing needs. We started our research in co-creation with the various educational directors so that we gained sufficient insight into the pedagogical project. We helped scale up the initially small concept of a ‘climate garden’ into a complete ‘climate campus’, starting with a determination of all valuable trees in the project zone. With a well-thought-out combination of greenery and orientation of the school infrastructure in terms of sunlight and shade, we designed a heat island-resistant campus. In consultation with the water management company Aquafin, the potential of sewer thermal energy was included in the plan. We then looked for opportunities for reuse of the existing school buildings by adding extensions in the right places, topping them and activating the currently unused basement floor with daylight through an English courtyard. From this compact, adaptable configuration, we ultimately designed a green school environment with recreational outdoor spaces that are partially accessible to neighborhood citizens. Finally, for the complimentary real estate development, we designed appropriate building sites that can also be realized in phases.