The final brief of the academic year for the postgraduate students Space and Service Design has already started, because we know: thorough research is half the battle when it comes to good design. This assignment brought us to ‘De Ark’ in Kessel-Lo this October.


Ark 3 school in Kessel-Lo. 

De Ark is a progressive preschool and primary school that wants to break the mould and find innovative ways to educate the new generation.  

 

The school’s motto is: “Become the best version of yourself.”.

 

They want to achieve this by using co-teaching, by working with the talents of each child and by being a community school that also engages in social projects.  



Without love a child can't grow" quote on the playground of the preschool. 

They have a great vision but the current infrastructure of the school, especially Ark 3 (kids from ages 8 to 12), doesn’t match their view on education. The classrooms and common areas are too traditional for this forward-thinking school. 

Traditional classroom in Ark 3.

So for our final assignment we will tackle this issue.

To be as efficient as possible every group of students will research a different aspect of the school (What is the tangible context?, Who are the users and what are their needs?, What are good example of other community schools?,…) .

This way we can start designing in February 2019 with all the info we need… To be continued…

This blogpost is written by students Pauline Verbeke & Emma Verhas.