The new Leonardo College in Leiden: A school in motion

This movement is reflected in the main shape of the school, in the outdoor space with multifunctional sports facilities and in the surroundings with a top sports center across the street. Because the area is still under development, this was taken into account in advance.

Zenzo Social Real Estate and Lithos construction & development won the selection to develop and build the school. The future users were involved in the process as much as possible, so they could also have their say. For example, the outdoor area was designed in consultation with the students, as was the interior. Irmo Jansen of Zenzo says: "We organized workshops for that. It has become a pleasant school with fresh colors and greenery in the outdoor area. Outside there will be a multifunctional sports facility which later on local residents can also use. The school is in an area that will be redeveloped. Residential development will surround it within a few years."

Outdoor classrooms

This is also one of the reasons that the grounds are freely accessible, with no fencing around them. By the way, the exterior grounds are not only on the first floor, but also inside the building itself, Jansen says. "It's a relatively small lot and we only had a limited site layout. That's why we created roof terraces on the floors. So outdoor classrooms were created on the floors."

Energy-neutral school

A modern school like Leonardo College will naturally be built sustainably. Indeed, the school will be made energy-neutral. This will be realized by means of a WKO installation in combination with 380 PV panels on the roof. This will generate all the energy needed for the facilities. Jansen: "The energy demand is reduced by means of a well-insulated shell. Next, cooling and heating are provided in an efficient manner and, of course, LED lighting is used."

Fresh Schools

In addition to being sustainable, the new school is also very pleasant to be in. The building meets the requirements of Fresh Schools Class B. "A good educational building must have a good indoor climate with good acoustics," Jansen continues. "We paid a lot of attention to the implementation of suspended ceilings and absorbent materials. The partition walls are also acoustic, so that people can work in peace. The request from the client was for the building to meet the requirements of Frisse Scholen Class B, and we upgraded that to Class A for the acoustics and energy components."

Maximum overview

Construction began in July 2020 and the school is expected to be completed in July 2021. A construction time of one year is very short for such a building. Together with the cooperating parties, Lithos construction & development managed to achieve this by doing a lot of prefabrication. The school consists of a steel structure, (prefabricated) floor slabs and timber-frame facade elements. In this way, not only could it be built in an efficient way, the interior is also very efficient in use. An atrium with a grandstand staircase is the heart of the building. From there you have a view of all parts of the school, says Jansen. "There are no cramped hallways, but a maximum overview throughout the building. Around the central heart are self-study areas for the students. When the school is soon in use, students can take a break on that grandstand staircase. All the spaces have been well thought out and the users are heavily involved in this." 

Project info 

Durable facade elements in all sizes

The timber frame facade elements and eaves for the Leonardo College were supplied by Prefab Fabriek Culemborg. This company produces and assembles facades, roofs, floors and complete houses from sustainable wood.

The wood-frame facade elements of the Leonardo College cover almost 3,000 m² and Prefab Fabriek supplied them in some 320 elements. Works Manager Teun van Laarhoven explains, "This is a complex building and therefore almost all the facade elements were different. We worked out the design with our own engineering firm from the 3D model, so we were sure everything would fit."

Client for this project Lithos Construction is no stranger to Prefab Factory. "We work for them more often. We experienced the cooperation and craftsmanship of Lithos' project team as very positive. This allowed us to deliver everything on time despite the time pressure that was on the project," Van Laarhoven said.

In addition to facade elements for new construction, Prefab Fabriek also supplies products for renovation and preservation of existing buildings. From window frames and facades to roofs, floors and even complete houses: everything is produced in our own factory.

Project info 

Fire-resistant support structure for Leonardo College

The Leonardo College in Leiden is being fireproofed by BHB Fire Prevention. It is providing the main steel load-bearing structure with a fire-resistant coating. This is done under the commissioning of Lithos.

"This is an intumescent fire-resistant coating. Once a fire breaks out, the coating will expand on the steel beams due to heat. The steel girders are thus insulated from the heat to prevent collapse. Thus, the project meets the 60-minute requirement," says Gerrit Bakker, owner of BHB Fire Prevention. The company is carrying out the work in phases, floor by floor. "Once the sand cement screeds are ready, we can realize our work per floor."

BHB Fire Prevention possesses the knowledge and expertise on architectural fire prevention and airtightness application. Throughout the Netherlands, it deals with structural fire prevention, with the fire tested systems for steel, wood and concrete structures. It also does WBDBO fire compartmentation for walls, ceilings and seals and airtightness in accordance with qv;10. This is all done according to the set standards of the Building Code.

Project info

Support structure offers maximum layout freedom 

SWINN designed the supporting structure in a system of hollow-core slabs with integrated beams and concrete-filled steel columns. The chosen supporting structure allows maximum flexibility for the school in terms of layout freedom. With the integrated beams, a flat underside of the floor is created, allowing installations full flexibility in current and future routes. Within this solution, the structural design is obviously also economically optimized. The integral design process involved intensive collaboration with the executing party, in which optimizations were made at an early stage in order to achieve a relatively short construction time. During the implementation phase, SWINN is in close contact with the executing parties in order to coordinate the engineering of the various suppliers and ensure that the realization of the project runs as smoothly as possible.

Construction Info

Design and construction 
Zenzo Social Real Estate and Lithos construction & development

Constructor
SWINN, Gouda

Cladding 
Bijlbouw, Alblasserdam

Solar power installation 
DenG Solar, Soest

Fire resistant coating 
BHB Fire Prevention, Barneveld

Timber frame facade elements 
Prefab Factory, Culemborg

Construction period
July 2020 - July 2021