LAB #5(44) 2008

LAB project _

tracts attention, makes an impression and leaves hoping to meet again. The College Da Vinci is a part of the Learning Park Dordrecht, the frontrunner in educational renewal in the Netherlands. After the organizational reform and changes in the learning process, there was a change in the architectural look of the college. Its building is a convenient form of the new educational ideas and follows a plan of the learning program reorganization. To realize the multidisciplinary edu- cational philosophy, Mecanoo designed the Da Vinci College as a “city within a city”: nine training houses connected by alleys, squares and courtyards. All the students’ life, their intellectual and physical activity is concentrated in one and the same district: they study here, work here, party and live here. The college houses 5000 students but it doesn’t look massive: its body is divided into several buildings. The unique look of the ensemble is achieved by using steel, brick, plaster, zinc, aluminium and glass and demonstrated the technical advancements and

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№5 _ 44 _ 2008