Form

2.1 SINT TRUIDEN AND THE TRAIN TRACKS

The Belgian city of Sint Truiden is a typical European village. Founded by the Romans and organized around an Abbey, this community of 40,000 is clustered around a dense historical core. This core is directly accessible from the train station. However, just across the tracks there is a pastoral paradise: an expanse of farmlands and grazing fields with few farmhouses and minimal infrastructure reaches to the very center of the urban zone by the virtue of the train track division.

The ongoing development strategy in Sint Truiden is to use the train track vehicular crossings on both sides of the station as avenues for new urban development. Residential schemes are proposed in these flanks to extend the sprawl of the city to the pastoral edge of the tracks (Figure 13). The various primary schools of the city are organized around the historic Abbey and Convent buildings, which are now overcrowded. The plot adjacent to the train station is reserved for the construction of a new technical high school, giving an opportunity to combine civic, nature and education functions (Figure 12).

2.2 THE SCHOOL AND THE WILD

The high school location takes its position on the transitional edge of the city in a very serendipitous manner. Nature has not yet been built over by the developers, and this school will force a more direct connection from the old city across the tracks. There is an opportunity in Sint Truiden to create a grand natural gesture, similar to Central Park in New York. The school can act as a gateway from the old city to the new development and retain the natural avenue leading to the very center (Figure 14). The urban proposal is to prescribe an un-buildable cone extending from the High School gate infinitely outward as the urban development fills in the edges and defines the landscape with its expanding enclosure (Figure 2). This enables a physical connection between nature and the city that meets at the core of learning and developing the next generation of citizens.

2.3 A GATEWAY IN THE HILL

The program of the school is extensive and dynamic, including highly technical zones, laboratories, various classroom types and outdoor and indoor playgrounds (Figure 11). Conventional playground layouts would double the footprint of the school. Stacking the functions would minimize the building footprint and allow all outdoor zones to be part of the public realm. The functions are arrayed in blocks based on their use and connection (Figure 1). The technical workshops are aligned to meet the road edge for access to materials and exhibitions. Playing fields are positioned closer to the residential neighborhoods to allow community use of their facilities. Open air playing fields are placed on the roof of the indoor facility. These two wings define the two expanding edges of the green zone (Figure 8). The primary educational bar is placed horizontally along the train tracks and is elevated (Figure 3). This acts as a keystone in the educational gateway, elevated and prominent, visible to the city and from the city. Secondary functions are flared out from the main volumes to become a stairway for nature to rise up to the top of the school and turn it into an urban green hill.

The side of the school facing the pastoral green becomes blended into it, as the landscape folds onto the school, becoming a public park, elevated to amplify the view of the flat landscape (Figure 7). The building touches the ground on two points, both open to public, via community sports activities and the exhibition of student constructions. This footprint is then fully covered by accessible public park space. The passage beneath the primary educational volume acts as a sheltered public plaza and a gathering point for the community (Figure 5).

The massing of the school becomes a hill filled with wilderness and natural vitality on the one side, and an urban massing accenting the linearity of the train line on the other. The overhangs on the urban side highlight the entrances and form a series of transitional spaces as you get closer to the building in a sheltered sequence (Figure 4). This becomes a gate to nature, education and civic virtue, a symbol of the new Sint Truiden community, their humble connection to their origins.

2.4 GEOMETRY OF CHANGE

The shape of our built environment has an impact on our ability to act. It can give hints to the nature of our behavior and suggest new ways of being. As a building soaring from the ground, the Gateway School is meant to inspire, to draw the attention to the sky, to uplift. The form itself provides shelter, nurturing and protection from bad weather. The entrances are all covered by the natural overhangs of the mass (Figure 6). The protrusions highlight the points of entry and make it easy to understand how to access the building.

The interior is interconnected with a singular circulation gesture. The hallway links every twisted volume to each-other along a horizontal and vertical axis. This movement mimics that of the green hill outside, the perforation of the hill surface defines the flowing double height zone that follows the entire circulatory system (Figure 10). This space, which requires student interaction between classes and activities, elevates the functionality beyond efficient movement and creates a usable space for a pause, meetings, study and thought (Figure 9). This public zone becomes an inhabitable inner sculpture that binds the school functions into a singular entity.

The green roofs provide extensions of the cafeteria and library to the outdoors for students as well as extend the amount of natural play area into potential outdoor study zones. The inclusion of nature into the learning environment enhances the well being of students and promotes the principles of balanced living and ecological responsibility. The school itself becomes a green laboratory, not just for the students, but also the community all around the school.