The STEM building on the school campus in Mechelen, formerly known as the ‘horticultural school’, gives the technical departments a completely new look. “The building allows the various hubs on the site to be connected, opening up the campus and creating interaction between students from the different programmes on campus,” says Pieter Meuwissen of Lava Architects.

What is now officially called the Provincial School for Horticulture and Technology Campus Mechelen used to be just a horticultural school. Due to its location right in the heart of the vegetable-growing region, it was very popular with successive generations of growers for a long time¹. Since 2010, it has been a secondary school for general, technical and vocational education, bringing together various fields of study: science, industry (technology) and horticulture. 1 Built entirely of brick along Antwerpsesteenweg, with fields for open-air cultivation at the front and horticultural greenhouses at the rear, the central school building was designed by modernist architect Jan Lauwers (1898–1988). Opened in 1934, it has been listed as a heritage building since 1997.