Antwerpen - Antwerp – SISA school building

Campus Cadix in Antwerp is one of the largest projects of the Design-Build-Finance-Maintain formula ‘Schools of Tomorrow’. The new building section at Kempischdok-Westkaai was already inaugurated in January 2020. At the start of the 2022-23 school year, the restored, listed school complex on Naples Street reopened to pupils.

New building and restoration were designed by Rotterdam-based architecture firm Korteknie Stuhlmacher, still in collaboration with Munich-based HildundK architekten during the competition phase. Their bid for the Open Call in 2010 was convincing because of the approach and expansion of the old school buildings, but also because of the bold urban design concept for the new building on the Kempischdok-Westkaai side. There, the city had only the generous half of the building block at its disposal. The other half on the dock side belonged to a private developer. Although urban planning had envisaged a block edge development, the team dared to present a proposal that offered a lot of added value and bypassed the disadvantages of a shared courtyard. A comb structure for the new residential development set back against the new school building meant that more dwellings had a view of the water and the dock. Possible nuisance from the school was thus excluded, but the school building was given lights and views through the courtyards between the four residential buildings. Although the new building was designed to house the ballet school, the concept proved robust. It held up to the rezoning to technical schools cluster, which the new city council opted for in 2012.

The Schools of Tomorrow project is important not only because of its size of 24,000 m², but even more so as a restoration project in the DBFM formula. Due to the many risks inherent in renovating-restoring an old building, the choice of DBFM was not obvious. The old school building, designed by then city architect Emiel Van Averbeke, dates back to 1921-1927. Its symmetrical brick architecture included two primary schools, one for boys on one side street and one for girls on the other. Each school had a playground, closed off from the street by a garden wall. Between the two schools was originally the kindergarten on a courtyard garden with trees. The primary schools each had a classroom wing with entrance on the corner and a substantial classroom wing with its imposing classrooms and corridors at the back of the plot. Both schools were equipped with a gymnasium in the front building on Naples Street. In 1951, the school became a secondary school for technical and art education: the Municipal Institute for Decorative Arts and Crafts.

Van Averbeke also designed the 1925-1940 recruitment hall for dock workers, which completes the eastern half of the block. The shed complex is also protected as a monument and partly belongs to the school complex. In the old sheds, the sports hall and cafeteria were built on an inner courtyard. The fine iron rafters were a particular concern as their preservation had to be combined with a new, insulated and heavier roof structure.

The Van-Averbeke building was thoroughly renovated and restored. In the process, all attic spaces were also made accessible and generously provided with daylight via new dormer windows. Additional spaces were created between the front and rear buildings. The roof spaces on those intermediate wings compensate for the loss of open space on the ground floor. In the interior finishing, the colours and material palette of the 1920s architecture were recreated. The spacious teachers’ room now overlooks the green garden of the former kindergarten. Adapted to all contemporary requirements in terms of safety, comfort, accessibility and energy saving, this centenary can once again defy time.

‘The brief is to design an arts campus for at least 1200 students on the Eilandje in Antwerp. The design is for the whole of the blocks involved as well as the construction of the new buildings.’

Antwerp city council’s education department wants to set up an arts campus on the Eilandje, a part of the city that is the midst of development.
To this end, several arts subjects have been brought together (including Drama, Fine Art and Multimedia Techniques). The Royal Ballet School will also be part of the future arts campus, though it will retain a face of its own, which must be reflected in the architecture.
The campus as a whole is a combination of new and renovated buildings.
The classified buildings in which the present SISA school is housed, and the adjoining CAD building, are to be thoroughly renovated; a new building will go up on the site of the ‘Kempisch dok’, with a volume of about 10,000 cubic metres. This new building will house a number of activities that would be difficult to accommodate on the sites that are to be renovated or restored.
The assignment here is to formulate an overall vision for the two blocks (classified part + Kempisch dok part). The new building (SISA site at Kempisch dok) will be further developed immediately afterwards and is part of the design brief.
The approach to the classified buildings will be used as the basis for the part of the project that will be developed by way of the Flemish DBFM system.
The client reserves the right to award the design brief for the renovation of the existing buildings to a third party.

overall fee min. 7.5% and max. 9.5% (incl. stability, technical installations,acoustics, energy performance)