Back in 2015, research reports have shown that all 4 educational buildings in the Eemsdelta region, Groningen were exposed to safety risks due to the earthquakes as a result of natural gas extraction.
Eemsdelta Campus, located in Appingedam, The Netherlands, is a groundbreaking project encompassing 4 secondary schools, a practical study program, and a sports cluster. The campus, with an outdoor space of 4ha, forms an integral learning landscape, meeting the educational needs and ensuring a natural interaction with the environment. The campus accommodates 1700 students, is energy-supplying, circular and is earthquake-resistant.
The layout of the school was inspired by the historical ‘wierden’, artificial dwelling mounds found in the rural landscape of Groningen. The campus utilizes the radial set-up of wierde-villages, where each school has its own ‘house’ with its own unique internal organization, identity and appearance. In addition to the three secondary schools, the campus incorporates various sport and cultural facilities, designed to be independently accessible to both users from school and external. The buildings are situated around a patio, the central heart, serving as the main entrance and hub for shared activities, while the surrounding landscape seamlessly connects them, creating a transparent and inviting complex.
The surrounding landscape features different landscape-themed rooms that connect various study areas through their thematic designs, including a garden nursery, workshop, sports beach, and a tiny forest along the ecological pond. The rooms stimulate both active engagement and relaxation, with sculptural objects placed in the rooms, such as a greenhouse in the nursery, a toolshed on the square, an observatory in the biology garden, a boulder wall, and multicourt along the beach encouraging specific use within each room.
The school’s northern side features a nursery with an outdoor terrace, enclosed by hedges, and containing various trees and plants used for maintenance and pruning classes. Seedbeds are placed in a grid-like structure, and fresh vegetables are grown and harvested to be utilized by the on-site restaurant. The southern side of the campus is an active space with different types of sport facilities and meeting places. The workshop square is the landscape room for hands-on activities. Additionally, the campus features an existing water pond with water buffering capacity, ecological embankments, flowery grass, and a bird island. The landscape around the pond is designed as a park with multiple areas to be used as outdoor classrooms.
The campus is a meeting and connecting place for everyone from the area and actually became a place of the community.The campus serves as meeting and connecting place for the community, fostering social connections and boosting sports, culture, and club activities in the area.
Thus, it functions as an activator in the region, with sport and social facilities open outside of school hours.
The vision of Eemsdelta Campus was created jointly. During the design process, attention was always paid to education, sustainability, nature inclusivity and integration of social needs and functions in the Eemsdelta region. Future users were intensively involved: the design team held more than 40 workshops, the outcomes of which were incorporated into the design.
Campus Eemsdelta has realized its vision: a campus in which every form of education has room for its own identity and needs with access to an exceptionally rich range of facilities.
Architecture offices involved in the design De Unie Architecten
Location
Pastorielaan 4
9901 CE Appingedam
The Netherlands
Design year 2018 – 2019
Year Completed: The school opened in September 2022, the landscape was completed in 2023 with the final part, a bridge over the pond, placed in December 2023.
