Ambition and the pursuit of excellence

The British School of Brussels (BSB) advertises itself as “a thriving, inclusive learning community for children aged 1-18”. It provides primary and secondary education to 1,350 children representing no less than 70 nationalities. The school is proud of its campus in Tervuren close to peaceful woodland, which in addition to classrooms, office space and workshops includes world class facilities for cultural education such as a theatre, a music recording studio and several libraries. And then there is the dazzling new sports centre, which was completed in 2016.

Improving site access and circulation                              

“Ambitions were high from the beginning,” says architect Jos Leyssens. “Sport and fitness are essential aspects of the educational programme in British schools. That’s why in 2010 BSB wanted to build an entirely new sports centre, much larger than the previous one and accommodating additional functions, including a swimming pool. They also wanted this new sports centre to be the campus hub. And it had to be state-of-the-art in every way, including with respect to sustainability criteria.”

Leyssens and his team at Licence to Build put forward a comprehensive approach, and developed a new master plan for the whole campus. “We shifted the site entrance towards the area between the existing theatre building and the new sports centre,” explains Leyssens. “This opened up opportunities to improve site access and circulation, including for cyclists and pedestrians. It also made the site more attractive while at the same time easier to protect against intruders.”

Bringing daylight into the gym

The sports centre itself includes a 25m swimming pool, dance studio, fitness suite, gym, and multi-purpose sports hall, as well as a cafeteria and a large examination space. Leyssens elaborates on the architectural challenges: “It is a fairly complicated cluster of different functions. For this reason, a fair number of the spaces were designed with a maximum functional flexibility to meet changing needs in the future. The building’s lightweight steel structure adds to the flexibility. At the same time, we also wanted to bring a lot of daylight into the gym and sports hall to improve comfort and reduce the energy needed for lighting. But this meant we had to avoid unpleasant shadows and glare, so we decided to use translucent wall panels to bring in diffuse light in a controlled manner. By the way, this also makes for a unique and elegant look from the outside!”

Named after Dr Jacques Rogge

Excellence was pursued and achieved in many ways, not least in relation to sustainability criteria. Leyssens: “The school board insisted our design met the highest sustainability standards. And we are indeed proud to say that the sports centre has been BREEAM certified, with an ‘excellent’ rating, the highest achievable rating for sports facilities. What’s more, BSB is the first school in Flanders to be awarded such a certificate” (see also ‘BREEAM for sustainable value’).

No wonder former president of the International Olympic Committee Dr Jacques Rogge did not hesitate to accept BSB’s proposal to name the building after him. With great pride, he officially opened it on 14 October 2016.