Primary School De Ceder

De Ceder is a regenerative renovation and extension of an existing primary school. By preserving the elongated school wing and reinforcing it with a lightweight timber roof and climate-adaptive envelope, the project balances robustness and flexibility. A climate playground, permeable surfaces and native planting strengthen biodiversity and water management. Through circular materials and low-tech strategies, the school becomes a future-oriented and socially embedded learning environment.

A School as Regenerative Environment

The brief for De Ceder may appear straightforward: renovate and extend a primary school. In reality, the project addresses far more than a building. It concerns a socially meaningful environment embedded within a complex urban context, where education, neighbourhood life and ecological repair intersect.

The proposal therefore approaches the school as a regenerative project: one that creates positive social and environmental impact while strengthening the everyday experience of children, staff and the wider community. Rather than treating sustainability, change-readiness and densification as add-ons, these themes inform the project from the outset.

Building on What Already Works

The design begins with a careful reading of the site and its existing qualities. The naturally planted climate playground between wings B and E remains fully intact, while the low-value connecting block is removed to create stronger links across the site and more generous visual and physical continuity between front and back playgrounds.

The idea is to retain and transform the existing linear school building as the spatial backbone of the project, while extending it where needed to support future educational use. The retained structure along Torenvenstraat offers a robust framework for classroom dimensions, direct connection to the playground and even new programme potential within the attic level. This makes preservation both spatially and environmentally meaningful.

Learning, Arrival and Play Interwoven

The new main entrance is positioned on Torenvenstraat, where a broad drop-off zone, generous pavement and small entrance square make arrival safer and more legible. The front playground is organised in two characters: a more robust sports surface and a softer climate playground with grass grids, sand, planting and play elements.

The extension and renovation also create a large covered outdoor space and a direct connection between the school and the parish hall. This layered organisation allows play, learning and everyday circulation to overlap. Outdoor classrooms and an accessible upper-level link reinforce the school as a connected and inclusive campus.

Retention, Extension and Warmth

The project keeps as much of the existing structure as possible: walls, floors and joinery are retained wherever feasible. A new insulated outer skin in thermally treated timber gives the building renewed performance and a coherent identity. The existing roof is replaced with a new timber structure in laminated beams and CLT roof plates, generating the height needed for full classrooms and circulation spaces.

At the head of wing B, a new extension completes the programme. Whether built fully in CLT or in a hybrid timber-masonry system, the intention remains the same: a robust, warm and adaptable school building rooted in renewable material use.

Climate Playgrounds and Shared Grounds

Landscape is central to the project. Existing depaving and greening strategies are extended through green roofs, planted areas and permeable surfaces. The school grounds become a sequence of climate playgrounds that support shade, biodiversity, water infiltration and thermal comfort.

The large canopy along the parish hall unifies the site, accommodates bicycle parking, sheltered entrances and covered play, and helps the different buildings read as one school environment.

Regeneration Through Reuse

De Ceder is conceived as an intelligent, robust structure designed for long life, reuse and adaptation. Retaining the existing building significantly reduces carbon emissions and preserves embodied spatial quality. New materials are selected for biobased, local and renewable properties wherever possible. Prefabricated dry construction methods reduce disruption, water use and construction time.

Together, these strategies support a school that does more than perform efficiently: it restores the site socially and ecologically, and remains open to future change.