Osdorpse Montessori school + preschool – Montessori philosophy within the outdoors: help me to do it by myself
Project information
Year: 2019
Status: Construction Completed
Location: Amsterdam Nieuw West, The Netherlands
Surface: 1520 m2
Client: STWT
Team: Renet Korthals Altes, Thomas Tiel Groenestege
Partners & Collaborators: Studio Soma
Description
Montessori philosophy in outdoor play; help me to do it by myself, inviting children to learn through play within their zone of proximite development.
Challenge
Integrating rainwater detention.
Integrating existing curved concrete detention walls into design.
Integrating a ‘truly natural play area’ with social safety and maintenance requirements for public space.
Enlarging existing schoolgrounds with municipal greenery.
Process
Strong participatory process, with children, teachers and parents. The school adopted municipal green space to enlarge their schoolgrounds. We integrated a playable wadi for rainwater detention.
We did the project coordination & building supervision: contractor, Amsterdam Municipality, teachers.
Result
Children fully interact with nature. A natural schoolyard with lessons and maintenance integrated in the curriculum. Futureproof result. Rainwater detention in playable wadi. Extra subsidies for green facades and integrating sports. The greenery which was inaccessible before, is now intensely used.