An Entrance That Tells the Story of the Place

The new campus for the American School for the Deaf offers an architectural experience that reshapes light, movement, and visual communication. Spaces align with the daily rhythm of students using sign language as their primary medium. The journey begins in the main lobby, where laminated timber surfaces meet streams of natural light, forming a calming visual layer guiding visitors along interior paths. This interplay reveals a design philosophy that treats architecture as a form of communication rather than just a container for classrooms.

The façade blends wood and glass to create a warm entry, with light subtly guiding visitor movement.

Site and the Origin of the Design Idea

The campus presents a clear spatial organization built on uninterrupted visual links between learning spaces, circulation routes, and outdoor courtyards. The design prioritizes visual communication at every stage of the experience from seating arrangements to movement patterns. The campus opens its pathways through carefully angled lines that allow signed conversations to flow naturally without stopping or altering walking rhythm. The project establishes a direct relationship between users and the site, using natural light as a guiding element and allowing the buildings to integrate with their surroundings without imposing an exaggerated presence.

Visitor Experience and Internal Circulation

Visitors move through wide, gently sloped steps that allow conversations in sign language to continue smoothly while walking. Students can navigate between classrooms without congestion because corridors offer extended sightlines that support continuous visual reading. Academic spaces are distributed to encourage interaction, with natural pauses that invite communication. Floor-to-ceiling windows open the interior to the landscape, letting daylight shift throughout the day and subtly influencing movement while reinforcing a shared visual environment.

Natural light streams through the glass façade, forming gradients that guide the visitor smoothly between levels.

Architectural Details That Shape the New Campus

Laminated timber introduces a warm visual texture across classrooms and hallways, forming a calm learning environment that reduces visual stress. Light interacts with the material to create a sense of openness and comfort. In the learning spaces, seating is arranged in U shaped layouts, enabling direct visual contact between students and instructors. Low-glare glass minimizes reflection and enhances clarity, supporting effortless reading of signs and gestures.

Materials and Technologies Used: - Laminated Timber approx. 70% of interior structural elements to reduce emissions and visual strain. - Low-glare glazing over 60% of external façades for improved visual clarity. - Floor-to-ceiling windows lengths exceeding 3 meters in main circulation areas. - Vibration-sensitive carpeting 100% coverage in classrooms to enhance sensory awareness. - Directed lighting with reduced glare approx. 40% reduction in glare levels. - U-shaped learning configurations 100% application in specialized classrooms.

Environmental Harmony and Sustainability Strategies

The new campus for the American School for the Deaf relies on solutions that reduce environmental impact while treating the site as part of the daily experience. The use of laminated timber lowers the buildings’ carbon footprint, while natural daylight reduces internal energy demand. Well-planned ventilation creates comfortable learning environments, and natural materials establish a visual balance that supports focus. Outdoor spaces extend the interior atmosphere, enabling students to transition between activities without breaking visual communication.

Classrooms as Living Communication Spaces

The design of the classrooms relies heavily on uninterrupted sightlines, with learning spaces organized around project-based exploration labs. Educational tools are arranged to support group interaction, while subtle light cues help direct attention without sound. Carpeted floors convey gentle vibrations, allowing students to sense movement around them and expanding the reach of sensory communication inside the learning environment.

The school library and the enjoyment of reading and information

A Daily Experience That Reflects Community Identity

The new campus for the American School for the Deaf creates a setting built on participation. Students and teachers contributed to shaping their everyday spaces from gathering points to discussion corners. The design reflects a deep understanding of visual communication and transforms that understanding into movement, spatial flow, and seating patterns that respond directly to the needs of users and the nature of their language.

Students inside the school playground and natural lighting

A Comprehensive Vision for Learning Spaces

The project adopts a spatial strategy that allows smooth transitions between activities, blending instruction, observation, and sensory engagement. The campus does not aim for visual dominance; instead, it focuses on clarity, legibility, and ease of orientation, enabling students to follow movement and maintain visual contact during conversations. Natural materials, extended pathways, and open views come together to create a balanced environment where learning unfolds within a supportive and stable setting.

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✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

The project creates a spatial layout shaped by natural light and open visual corridors. Classrooms, hallways, and courtyards connect through clear movement lines. Timber surfaces and low-glare glazing form a calm visual atmosphere, ideal for learning. The smooth circulation paths support signed communication effectively. However, adding more variation in vertical transitions could enhance the sense of spatial depth. Overall, the design shows how natural materials craft a balanced educational environment that promotes focus and responds to user needs.

Redefining the School as a Social Hub

Het Streek Lyceum in Ede was designed with the aim of rethinking the role of the secondary school, not merely as a place for learning, but as an active social hub that connects students with the surrounding community. The design focuses on creating an environment that encourages encounters and interaction among all building users, reinforcing a sense of belonging and strengthening social ties.

Compact, Circular Design

The building adopts a compact, circular layout that enables efficient use of space and naturally facilitates movement and communication between students and teachers. This form enhances vibrancy and allows for smoother circulation throughout the school, contributing to an improved daily learning experience.

Strengthening Interaction and Belonging

The school’s purpose extends beyond academic education; it is designed to encourage spontaneous interactions and social engagement. Through carefully planned spatial distribution, students, teachers, and the local community can participate in shared activities, fostering a strong sense of belonging and creating a flexible and stimulating educational environment.

The Site as a Link Between Community and Education

The school is strategically positioned between a residential neighborhood and the Kenniscampus, becoming a bridge between two distinct worlds: the daily life of local residents and the intensive academic activity of the campus. This strategic siting reflects the designers’ commitment to integrating the school into the surrounding social fabric.

Architectural Harmony with the Surroundings

The varying building heights, from two to four stories, respond to the scale of the context, ensuring the school does not appear imposing or disconnected from its environment. The combination of brick façades and recessed timber cladding creates a smooth visual rhythm and architectural gradation that lends the building a lively, harmonious presence within its surroundings.

Embedding the Building in Nature

The Technasium wing, crafted from glass and aluminum, extends outward from the main structure and rests atop one of the distinctive sculpted hills, adding an expressive architectural gesture to the school. These gentle slopes reference the nearby Veluwe nature reserve, grounding the building within its natural context and establishing a visual connection between the architectural design and the surrounding landscape.

The Entrance as a Welcoming Space and Social Experience

At the entrance, the Technasium wing stands alongside a colonnaded arcade, forming a covered entry defined by the school as the “Het Streek World.” This architectural gesture functions not only as a practical entrance, but as a welcoming space that prepares visitors for an integrated educational and social experience.

Reception and Visual Connectivity

Inside, visitors are greeted by a circular reception desk offering direct views toward the first floor and the central staircase that connects all levels. This design fosters a sense of openness and enables an interactive experience that reflects the project’s core intention: encouraging encounters and communication between students and visitors.

Transforming the Concept into a Tangible Experience

In this way, the concept of “designing for encounters” becomes a tangible experience, where movement through the building and interaction across its different spaces form an essential part of both the school’s educational and social journey.

The Aula: The Heart of School Life

The spacious, naturally lit aula forms the core of daily life within the school. This multifunctional space acts as a communal meeting point, where varying floor levels, diverse seating zones, and open sightlines enable a range of social and educational experiences, fostering students’ sense of belonging and interaction.

Flexibility and Multiplicity in Design

A multifunctional timber wall stands out as a central design feature, opening up to accommodate various uses. Its largest opening transforms into a ground-level stage, while lowered seating areas create a natural amphitheater that supports interactive and flexible student activities.

Integrating Learning and Creativity

A passageway with a Juliet balcony behind the stage invites students to reenact theatrical scenes, such as the iconic balcony moment from Romeo and Juliet, connecting the school’s spatial experience with creative learning. This integration of design and education underscores the school’s commitment to creating learning environments that inspire interaction and imagination.

The Aula as a Community Center

Outside school hours, the aula transforms into the heart of the local community, providing a space where residents can hold prayers, art performances, and sports events. This multi-purpose use reflects the flexibility of the design and its ability to serve the community alongside the students.

Transparency and Connection with the Surroundings

The expansive glass façade enhances visual transparency between the school’s interior and its external environment. This visual connection creates a sense of openness and turns the interior into a shared space accessible to all, reinforcing the idea of the school as a living part of the local community fabric.

Sustainability as a Core Principle

Sustainability was a guiding principle from the outset in the design of Het Streek Lyceum. The combination of compact massing, detailed façades, and solar panels contributes to an energy-efficient and healthy building, in line with the national “Frisse School” standards focused on fostering a healthy and sustainable learning environment.

Innovation in Construction

Het Streek is the first four-storey building in the Netherlands constructed using the Dry-stack technique: a circular brick system without mortar. This method allows bricks to be fixed with screws, leaving fasteners visible, enabling practical and tangible reuse and repair. It reflects the school’s commitment to sustainability at both the architectural and structural levels.

Smart Planning to Minimize Disruption

Smart planning during the tender phase allowed the existing school to remain operational throughout construction, helping reduce costs and minimize disruption for students and teachers. This approach demonstrates how the design successfully balances operational continuity with construction efficiency.

Reusing Resources

Materials from the old building were repurposed within the landscape design, including the creation of a large insect hotel that wraps around the site. This strategy reflects the school’s commitment to sustainability and reducing environmental waste, while enriching the educational environment with vital natural elements.

A Sustainable Community Environment

Through collaboration with students, teachers, and neighbors, Het Streek Lyceum has evolved beyond its traditional role as a school to become an open, sustainable learning environment. This approach strengthens the social fabric of the local community and creates an integrated educational and social space that serves all its users.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

Het Streek Lyceum offers an intriguing model for how schools can be integrated into the social fabric, demonstrating a clear ability to strengthen interaction and belonging between students and the local community. The open spaces, architectural gradation, and expansive glass façade illustrate how architecture can help create a multifunctional learning environment. Moreover, the use of sustainable construction methods such as Dry-stack and the reuse of materials from the old building presents a practical vision for responsible environmental design.

However, the project may raise questions when implemented in other contexts or in schools with very limited space, as the circular and open layout, along with the multi-functional areas, require careful management to ensure privacy and safety. Likewise, the heavy reliance on glass elements may pose long-term challenges related to light control and temperature regulation. On the other hand, such challenges present architectural learning opportunities, allowing the project to be studied as an example of how to balance functional flexibility and sustainability with daily operational needs and environmental constraints.

In this sense, Het Streek Lyceum can be regarded as a valuable educational and architectural case study, not only for understanding approaches to contemporary school design, but also for drawing practical lessons in spatial planning, resource sustainability, and enhancing social connectivity through architecture.

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https://archup.net/2023-lyceum-fellowship-old-town-mall-reimagined/ Prepared by the ArchUp Editorial Team

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Jack Richardson Architecture revisits the school extension design project at Christopher Whitehead Language College, Worcester, UK.

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