Innovative new educational campus doubles as a landscape

Campus Eemsdelta is a self-sufficient new school campus recently opened in the North of the Netherlands, near the city of Groningen. Three levels of secondary education, practical training and a sports cluster have been merged into a single facility consisting of several buildings with a total area of 16,600m2. Together with the surrounding 4-hectares of outdoor space, the buildings form an integral learning landscape that meets the educational needs of all schools and ensures a natural interaction with the environment.

Felixx Landscape Architects and Planners designed the new campus that opened on June 3rd, together with De Unie Architecten and commissioned by the Foundation for Secondary Education Eemsdelta, ROC Noorderpoort and the municipality of Appingedam. The sleek new building accomodates 1,700 students and self-generates 100 per cent of its own energy, as well as being earthquake-resilient.

Integral Learning Landscape

The spatial layout of the campus was inspired by the historic ‘wierden’ in the Groningen landscape. These small artificial mounds provided protection during floods. The edges are inhabited, the buildings are oriented around a central elevated dry area. Campus Eemsdelta adopts the radial arrangement of these historic villages. Each school has its own ‘house’, with an individual organization, identity and appearance. In addition to the three different secondary schools, the campus also accommodates a large number of regional sports and cultural functions: these are as well clustered and spatially organized in separate ‘houses’, so that both the schools and the neighborhood can use them independently from each other. All buildings are situated around a central heart, which functions as a hub, main entrance, and area for shared activities. The surrounding landscape flows in between the buildings, and turns the Eemsdelta Campus into a transparent and inviting complex.