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Leerhuis Banne Buiksloot

Appreciating the existing by building on the existing 

The topic of choice for my graduation project is a revitalisation design of a secondary school in Amsterdam Banne Buiksloot. When I started this graduation project, I noted that in our current educational system, we allow school institutions to innovate their curriculum. The idea is to provide different types of education suitable for various individuals instead of one flavour for everyone sounds as a good thing. However, the so called ‘conceptscholen’ also stimulate separation and segregation in the physical domain.   

With the rise of many innovative concept schools, such as Agora, Steve Jobs, and Kunskapsskolan schools, the landscape of our secondary school education system is undergoing significant changes. The emergence of these school concepts brings forth not only new challenges for policymakers, but also for neighbourhoods. These school concepts, born out of certain ideologies, will regularly inhabit existing school buildings in an existing context. Attracting a niche group, students may come from different parts of the metropolis rather than residing nearby. As a result, there is often a lack of connection between the school users and the local residents.

It is precisely here that I want to focus on during this thesis project. In addition to the challenges new school concepts present for the quality and unity of an educational system, I had a hunch that if we want to make a concept school succeed, it requires a functional building that suits the concept of the school, but more importantly will complement the existing community. 

My role as an architect is to design and to convince with ideas as answers to questions that haven’t been asked yet. The complex segregation phenomenon is constantly changing in terms of its form. Therefore, it’s possible that multiple answers from different fields can be given to this question. However, the power of design, in my case interdisciplinary design, can only give so many answers and interpretations that it will trigger the start of a debate and make the impossible possible. With this graduation project, I dare to dream and will give an insight into how to apply my manifesto on school buildings.


Graduation date: 22 April 2024
Graduation committee: Elsbeth Falk (mentor), Ard Hoksbergen, Lorien Beijaert
Additional members for the exam: Jo Barnett, Patrick Roegiers