Modern building façade provides softening
Due to an increase in student numbers and the expansion of the adjacent Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital, the Leijpark Education Centre Foundation (OCL) in Tilburg moved to a new education and care building with a swimming pool and sports hall in November 2024. The design of the Leijpark Children and Youth Centre provides security, but also connects with the surrounding area. The new building follows the look and feel of the healthcare campus, where concrete and steel predominate.

Frencken Scholl Architects designed a modern, attractive and logical building façade with well-insulated and airtight sandwich panels and Custom Eclectic 50 profiles from Arcelor Mittal Construction, with a green colour finish to provide the desired softening effect and connection with the greenery.

The OCL provides education to children and young people aged 4 to 20 with physical disabilities, severe multiple disabilities, intellectual disabilities, acquired brain injury and psychological problems. Frencken Scholl Architects designed a three-storey building with a sleek modular design especially for them, in which care, childcare and education harmonise. 

Various functions, short construction time
‘The challenge in this project was the diversity of functions, combined with an extremely short construction time,’ says architect Huub Frencken. "The new building had to be designed and built in just sixteen months. In June 2023, we were awarded the design contract, after which we got to work on this project together with the teachers and supervisors. We visited a reference project and created a puzzle with all the building functions to arrive at the most efficient building layout. In December, the application for the environmental permit and inspection by the ETZ quality team followed, after which Pellikaan Bouwbedrijf was able to start construction in February 2024."

Rapid façade closure
The contractor had only seven months to complete a building of approximately 7,000 m2. ‘To make this possible, a modular CD20 system with a detachable support structure of prefab concrete columns, beams and floors was chosen,’ says Frencken. ‘This allowed Pellikaan Bouwbedrijf to start ordering and preparing in December.’ Following the construction, rapid façade closure was also desired. ‘As soon as the first concrete façade sections were in place, the installation of the steel sandwich panels began immediately. They not only give the building an attractive look, but also provide a functional raincoat and insulation layer.’ The sandwich panels are interspersed with aluminium window frames, Custom Eclectic 50 profiles, flashings and connectors, giving the building a size and scale tailored to its users and a friendly appearance.

Unique façade appearance
“The plinth with sandwich panels and window frames extending to the ground makes the building accessible, while the profiled sheets in between provide excitement and variety,” says Frencken. “An asymmetrical wall profile with random waves was chosen, which play with the sun at any time of the day. The façade band then gives the plinth a beautiful finish and connects it to the first and second floors, which are slightly smaller in size. For example, by connecting the smaller window frames vertically to the wall profiles.” The sandwich panels, wall profiles, flashings and connectors are finished in ArcelorMittal Construction's Copper Green Metallic colour, which was specially matched for this project. ‘This creates a beautiful transition to, for example, the trees at the rear,’ says Levi Kleinjan, Special Façades Manager at ArcelorMittal Construction. ‘The building blends naturally into its surroundings. Our Hairexcel 60 coating provides long-lasting protection against weather and time.’

Uniform appearance
“What makes this project unique is that each façade product was manufactured by a different team and/or factory,” explains Kleinjan. “From sandwich panels to profiles and typesetting. The biggest challenge was therefore to ensure a uniform appearance, with different steel thicknesses and steel qualities. The end result shows that we succeeded with flying colours.” Together with Frencken, he looks back on a great project, in which there was pleasant and constructive cooperation from the very beginning. ‘At the start of the project, Huub visited our Experience Centre in Tiel and viewed and compared various types of profiles. The right colour was then selected.’ 

Phase 2 of the new construction will follow in a few years, adding a new wing and park-like outdoor space. From that moment on, the building will fit even more logically into the landscape.

Construction info:
Client: Stichting Onderwijscentrum Leijpark (Leijpark Education Centre Foundation)
Architect: Frencken Scholl Architecten
Swimming pool and sports hall: Wehrung Architecten
Construction: Pellikaan Bouwbedrijf
Engineering & assembly: P-Design