De Henricus School – Catharina Complex
We have completed the renovation and extension of the school that forms part of the Catherina Complex – a municipal monument. The complex which comprises two schools and a church was originally designed and built by Evers and Sarlemijn between 1953 and 1960.
The school has changed from classroom based teaching, to small group instruction.This requires some radical adjustment to a building which was very classroom based in its design. It was a challenge to reconfigure the building fabric to meet the needs of a school for the 21st century, while retaining important qualities from the original architecture.
The architects Evers and Sarlemijn attended Granpré Molière’s renown Post War Ecclesiastical Architecture course where they were taught by Dom Hans van der Laan, the architect monk. Here they were first introduced to his proportional theory of Plastic Numbers in the construction of architectural space. The influence of this proportional system can be seen throughout the Catharina Complex.
We produced an exhibition at the Van Eesternmusem and received funding in 2016 from the National Office of Cultural Heritage – Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed – Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap – Subsidieregeling stimulering herbestemming monumenten) for additional research into the complex as a whole.
In 2018 the Henricus was nominated for the Amsterdam Architecture prize. In November 2018 Henricus won Architectenweb “Schoolbouw van het jaar 2018“
We are currently involved in the renovation of the remainder of the complex for Koninklijke Visio (Expertiscentrum voor slechtiende en blinde mensen).
