De Wijnpers ← Works ← Henley Halebrown

De Wijnpers Leuven, Belgium 2010–

This secondary school, set on a south east facing escarpment on the northern edge of the Belgian city of Leuven, provides pupils with a technical, vocational and artistic education. The horticultural gardens, orchards and greenhouses provide an unusually beautiful and dramatic setting for a school. Our design, which recollects industrial and agricultural buildings, takes its cue from many of the pupils’ future employment scenarios.

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The design weaves together a response to the remarkable situation on this south east facing hillside and ideas about greenhouses, and farm and industrial buildings found in the landscape…
...this is evident in the structural expression of the sports hall (left) and teaching block (right) and the orientation of the Eerstegraadsgebouw towards the view
Conceptual site section and isometric, showing the building's connection to the landscape, as well as strategy for the façade
View from the street - the scheme combines a sports hall to be used by the whole school (left) with separate teaching facilities for the first two years at De Wijnpers (right)
Site and buildings masterplan
View from escarpment - the design is intended to be a strong endorsement of their future and a more practical way of life that depends on a wide range of skills combining mind, eye and hand, in other words craft
First floor plan shows gym (top) and wing of classrooms studio (beneath) with primary circulation behind a south east facing glazed wall overlooking the school's horticultural gardens
Internal perspective section of sports hall, ancillary spaces, classrooms and workshop, looking north east
Internal perspective section of Foyer (and assembly hall), looking towards music workshop, Foyer mezzanine and central stairs
South west and north east elevations - the sports hall, next to the street, fulfils the role of a public community building sheltering the teaching wing which enjoys the prospect of the landscape
There is once again a recognition that craft is vitally important and something that is often lost in a capitalist, consumer and academic context…
…craft underpins a wide range of vocations including that of an artist, a musician, a surgeon, a plumber, a joiner, a horticulturalist, a viticulturalist, of course the list goes on

architects Henley Halebrown

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Technical