Wiebenga

Completed in 1922, the 'Wiebenga' is a listed school building designed by Jan Gerko Wiebenga. The Functionalist building is one of the oldest examples of Dutch Modernism. The reinforced concrete supporting structure, an innovative material at the time, gave the architect free rein in choosing the layout and allowed the use of a transparent facade structure. These days the school is in use as a nursing college. The climate conditions inside the building are far from ideal, and over the years the research facilities have become fragmented among countless small rooms along the extended corridors of the building. This is remedied by renovating the existing building and introducing a new, flexible layout system.

The new extension stimulates student collaboration in skills labs at a central location within the complex. This creates a new core with short routes to the workshops in the existing wings, promotes personal interaction, and displays the concept of collaboration across the whole range of the healthcare chain. The extension merges naturally with the original design by Wiebenga, with parallel lines of symmetrical building volumes grouped around a central axis.

The new addition to the building is one of the first earthquake-proof buildings to be constructed in the Netherlands. Concrete columns and steel “slender walls” create a strong yet flexible structure. The composite facade is capable of absorbing considerable deformation, so the building can cope with deflections of up to 20 centimetres. The modular construction of the facade creates a flexible envelope for the continually evolving curriculum. The use of prefabricated elements ensures that construction will be swift and clean, so teaching activities can continue throughout the building phase.

The entire complex was processed as a BIM model, with future maintenance playing a major part. In order to obtain a reliable model the existing situation was included by means of a point cloud scan.