Sports Hall and Primary School Het Laerhof

The design for Het Laerhof Primary School preserves and reinforces the site’s green and open character by organising the extension around a central, sheltered heart, anchored by one of the site’s oldest trees. Three carefully positioned volumes structure the ensemble: a sports hall along the Laarsebaan as an open, public landmark; a kindergarten wing that, together with the existing pavilion, embraces the new playground; and a compact, stacked volume for the primary school, adjacent to the main building. A series of multipurpose spaces unfolds around the central green core, each with its own identity and use. Canopies and continuous interior connections blur the threshold between inside and outside, fostering contact, visibility, and interaction among pupils, teachers, and the neighbourhood. The result is a porous and legible school environment where architecture does not merely frame education but becomes part of it — a school as a landscape of places, both open, intimate, and collective.