Never has it been more important to highlight the benefits of building re-use than in the current climate emergency. Our competition-winning project in Belgium, for a secondary school at Eeklo, is an example of how careful site assessment and options appraisals can reveal opportunities to rejuvenate buildings alongside enhancing sustainability.
An urban design and landscape-led masterplan of the two campuses at College O.L.V. Ten Doorn led to a brief which would both refurbish the ageing middle-school and provide a new entrance square connecting to the town, flanked by new-build sports hall and classrooms. These recent photos show how a retrofit approach, combined with new build, can bring together a complex site in a coherent way, achieving budget constraints and not merely fulfilling the brief but adding long-lasting value for the client and community.
Another of our current projects takes a similar strategy; the new Houlton Secondary School re-purposes a listed building through restoration and refurb, with new-build blocks adjacent, to create a new campus for 600 students. See the on-site journey here.
