Two alumni of the Gymnasium Beekvliet – MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas and Theobert van Boven of Van Boven Architecten – are leading the transformation of their old secondary school in the Dutch village of Sint-Michielsgestel. The main element of the design by ‘Team Old Beekvliet’ is a colourful, flowing addition that reaches out into the school’s plaza and considerably improves circulation, creating a new focal point at the heart of the building. Exhibiting artwork by visual artist Ian Kirkpatrick, the addition becomes a new focal point for the school’s activities. The completion of the transformation is scheduled for July this year.
MVRDV has designed a small office and residential building on a corner lot next to the Dommel river in the Dutch village of Sint-Michielsgestel, using a gridded “rack” system to cover the building’s entire exterior in a variety of plants. Located on the town’s southern edge, the four-storey Green Villa adopts the urban form of the neighbouring buildings, while the plant covering helps it blend into the bucolic landscape of the nearby river, fields and trees.
Containing a new office space for a real estate developer, Stein, on the ground floor, five apartments on three floors above, and underground parking, the Green Villa develops one end of a surface car park on the southern edge of Sint-Michielsgestel. The project was initiated and is being developed by MVRDV’s co-architect, Van Boven Architecten, who wanted to create a landmark project for the village while also being socially conscious and environmentally progressive.
Reset Architecture transforms a barn at a historical estate into a museum.
This project addresses a current theme of the changing countryside that is no longer mainly used for agriculture. Within this context of change the intention of this project originated from preservation; sharing the past of a beautiful location. The architecture of this adaptive reuse project does not react to history in a nostalgic or thematic way, it uses a more context sensitive approach. The interior has changed to a level in which the old and new merge but still are, without hierarchy, visually present. As a result the new setting evokes a self-evident presence that relates to the characteristics of the natural scenery.
Reset architecture has designed a multipurpose theatre pavilion with a hall for 200 seats in the woods of ‘Zonnewende group stay’. The sturdy brick building is designed to blend into its surroundings but also to stand out.