In Mechelen, not far from the station, a new educational building is taking shape. On this site, which lacks any obvious urban orientation, the design concept is a self-contained cubic volume. With its simple, abstract form, the cube allows for the absence of a prominent façade. However, this uniformity does not come at the expense of a distinct architectural identity.
The school seeks to combine three functions: workshops for a fashion institute, science classrooms for the neighbouring school and a multi-purpose hall. To address the significant acoustic challenges posed by these varied uses, the solution is a programme stratification by floor. The multi-purpose hall, which needs to be used outside school hours, occupies the ground floor. The classrooms are distributed across the lower floors. Meanwhile, the fashion workshops, with their often noisy sewing machines, are situated on the upper floors.
Managing the diverse flow of visitors requires a lobby with separate entrances. One entrance opens onto the school’s outdoor area, to which the classrooms are also directly connected, whilst the entrance for fashion students faces the public domain and opens directly onto the city. Thanks to the clever arrangement of circulation routes at the centre of the floor plan, the classrooms benefit from maximum light on the upper floors. The generous, oversized corridors suggest spaces for spontaneous work.
For the façade, the decision was made to reuse the white facing bricks from the demolished old school, giving them a new lease of life on the same site. This choice gives the building an aesthetic similar to its predecessor. However, the new green cantilevered awnings add a dynamic touch to the façade. Its composition follows a classical layout with a shared base of tinted concrete, regular white-brick storeys and a technical crowning element concealed by a circular metal sheet set back from the cube. The arrangement of the regular, staggered openings reveals nothing of the building’s use. Only the intriguing mannequins created by the fashion school students give any clue as to this.
