Ecca collection

Green both literally (in colour) and in environmental terms, the 100,000 square-metre building houses a school for vocational education and a sports hall. It sits at the edge of Ede’s Zandlaan education campus amid an area of wooded urban fringe.

Since the metal cladding used is relatively lightweight, Schotte explains, his firm LIAG was able to design “a very efficient facade where the structure is separate from the cladding”, producing a building that also uses very little energy. “And given the size of the school,” he adds, “we tried to break down the long facades by mimicking treetops.”

The cladding colour, “spring-green” with a roll-on pattern of darker green stripes, was chosen, Schotte says “to both stand out and blend in with the trees, in spring and summer”. The faceted appearance, he adds, was determined by its ability to reflect sunlight. It is also easy to maintain and needs to be cleaned just once a year.

The durability of the building was taken into account as it was being designed, Schotte explains. The “indoor climate” can be regulated room by room, and a balanced ventilation system prevents energy loss. Thermal storage (heat and cooling) ensures that the temperature is pleasant in winter and summer, while lighting, with high-frequency energy-saving fluorescent lamps is regulated by a presence sensor and daylight control.

This project is not the first time that LIAG, which is based in The Hague, has successfully specified metal cladding. Earlier schemes include its imposing dark brown reflective facade for the IJburg-college in Amsterdam.

“We got to know and understand metal facade cladding as a very effective way to create expressive buildings for a relatively moderate budget,” says Schotte. “With the IJburg-college we were limited to a certain glass percentage but wanted an expressive building that would play with daylight.” By faceting the entire facade, it managed to create a building whose appearance changes markedly throughout the day.

“For the school in Ede,” Schotte explains, “we designed an irregularly shaped triangular pattern that we tested with various computerised 3D-models”. The triangles visually break up the facade while at the same time providing space for deeply inserted windows designed to generate shadows.

LIAG works with BIM/Archicad and draws all buildings in 3D from the design phase onwards. “We're also used to making drawings for the construction phase, and collaborate closely with [component] manufacturers,” he adds. “This allowed the contractors to get a good insight in how to make the facade and to therefore limit their risks.”