D&B BS De Abeel

The new building for De Abeel Primary School translates the need for capacity expansion into a compact, layered volume carefully anchored within the social housing fabric. The programme, realised with Flemish capacity funding, includes classrooms, a refectory, administrative spaces, a gymnasium, and shared community facilities. The public functions – such as the entrance hall and the youth and neighbourhood rooms – occupy the ground floor, directly connected to the community square, allowing them to function autonomously outside school hours. Above, the school world unfolds across two levels, with class clusters organised around bright interior spaces overlooking the playground. At roof level, an covered play and meeting area offers a symbolic return of open space to the neighbourhood. External stairs and terraces link the levels and blur the threshold between building and landscape. In doing so, De Abeel becomes a community school that does not enclose but intertwines – an architecture of collectivity, proximity, and urban generosity.