Nimeto: redesign of a trade school
Crafts like restoration, window dressing, painting and set-building are thought in the school.
The work has an inherent appeal, which is now hidden behind closed doors in generic corridors.
The dream is to transform the school into a lively workshop. The smell of wood fills all spaces, someone is painting a door or building a chair, groups of students are gathered around big objects. The existing school consists of two buildings, divided by a street. The proposal is to create six open spaces throughout and in between the buildings. These spaces connect the buildings, crafts and students. Here one finds practice rooms, a schoolyard (which functions as an outdoor workshop) and places to drink coffee. Meetings no longer take place in lifeless corridors, but in these open centres. Wandering through the school may stimulate students, teachers and visitors to be curious and look further than the boundaries of a craft. Every center is marked by a clear frame: a prefab timber load bearing structure filled with acoustic materials. This architectonic system creates a necessary clarity in the buildings. The frames accentuate the work and landscapes within. Through a gradient of privacy and silence we create a diversity of spaces within the learning landscape. Only spaces that ask for silence or produce smells and dust are insulated. Thus the buildings and their surroundings are filled with a workshop atmosphere, specific to the school.
