As a designer, how do you create a pleasant learning and play environment for children and young people when strict regulations, practical constraints and a tight budget threaten to dictate the design? The designers at Compagnie O provided a moving and colourful answer to that question with their school for young people with multiple motor and severe mental disabilities, set in the wooded surroundings of Brasschaat.

In the forecourt, where minibuses arrive and depart in quick succession just before and after school, calm returns. The silvery leaves of a mighty poplar glisten in the June sunshine. The rhododendrons in the park garden exude a summery scent. A neighbour walks past in a beekeeper’s suit, carrying a beehive in his wheelbarrow. Joke Vermeulen and Francis Catteeuw, founders of Compagnie O, and project architect Elias Verdegem arrive together. They were keen to visit the school together, as Covid restrictions make this no easy feat. Above the entrance, we are greeted with a ‘good day’ in neon letters; a touch of glamour upon entering the school and a somewhat cheeky nod to the local residents who protested against the school’s expansion (even though it was established here long before the residential area was built).