We invite you to explore a sampling of our Constructalia case studies about educational buildings in which steel plays an important role. Be it in their structural systems, facades, or roofing, find out how steel contributes to the aesthetics, functionality, and safety of these buildings whilst keeping cost and sustainability concerns in mind.
Experimental construction at the service of science
Seemingly floating over the ground with its gentle slopes and internal patios, the educational experience at the Rolex Learning Center on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland must be one of a kind. Who wouldn't like to discover its innovative learning labs, libraries, and student mingling spaces? While we cannot take you there, our case study can offer you a glimpse.
Education wrapped in steel
Education escorts us throughout our entire lives – as do the buildings in which we acquire our knowledge and skills. We recollect their architecture, interior design, pieces of furniture, and even their smells. Some have impressed us more than others, but none of them have left us indifferent. In our memories, these buildings are profoundly connected to our experiences and emotions, including the people we connected with there.
Over the last few decades, education has evolved and so have the requirements for educational buildings. Architectural design has significantly increased in importance, technology has conquered interior design, and user comfort is a key concern, all of which are important factors accompanying the learning experience. Architecturally attractive buildings not only express the prestige and status of institutions but contribute to a sense of wellbeing for their users.
Ecological intelligence transformed into a building
Stoas Vilentum University of Applied Science, now called Aeres Hogeschool, focusses on research and teaching in the fields of agriculture and ecology. With a durable steel facade, its university building in Wageningen in the Netherlands was also featured as Constructalia case study a few years back. Learn about its 'ecologically intelligent' design that was conceived in close cooperation with its future users.
Secondary education with a sustainability focus
Find out more about Gallieni High School and its workshops in Toulouse, France that offer a fine example of steel architecture, in an industrial philosophy, designed in accordance with an environmental approach. In this project, like in many others, steel allows for a high degree of prefabrication, offers wide spans for flexible spaces, and optimises user comfort while saving materials and cost.
It takes a village…
At Vista College, formerly known as Arcus College, hundreds of students receive vocational education at different levels, preparing them for the ever-changing professional world. At its campus in Herleen in the Netherlands, six steel-clad, organic shaped buildings are connected on their ground floors below street level and arranged around two patios, resulting in an environment that encourages openness, flexibility, and exchange.
Text:
Constructalia
Images:
© EPFL | Alain Herzog
© Dirk Verwoerd for ArcelorMittal
© Little Planet
© ACAUM - Atelier BETTINGER DESPLANQUES Architectes associés & Paul Kozlowski
© ArcelorMittal
© Andrea Raffin for ArcelorMittal
More
informationAn all-in-one primary education project
Wouldn’t you like to acquire skills and knowledge at a school that combines education, handicrafts, and leisure activities? Read how this is achieved at Pôle Molière in Le Havre, France where former stables now function as a part of a modern multipurpose school project, partly clad with weathering steel.
Just plane lightness
A more specific form of education takes place at Air Vergiate Flying School in Sesto Calende on Lake Maggiore in Italy where, thanks to their lightness, beams with large web openings brought life back to a sacred place of Italian civil aviation. See where future pilots learn to fly planes in this renovation project case study.