School Building Award 2013

Bolidt News

School Building Award 2013

The Department of Education, Culture and Science celebrates the 10th anniversary of its prestigious annual School Building Award this year. The 2013 award is themed around Educational Quality and Connections. Out of 162 submissions, 30 school buildings were shortlisted in a first-round selection on 17 May and then presented a month later in a second round. The shortlist includes the Shipping and Transport College (STC) in Rotterdam and the St Nicolas Secondary School in Amsterdam, whose educational and architectural qualities are based on Bolidtop^® 700 College flooring.

The School Building Award rewards excellence in commissioning. Important judging criteria are educational quality assurance and the level of client involvement in the building process, design and management. The jury judges the buildings on quality in terms of urban development, sustainability, indoor climate, structural connections as well as connections to society. In the second round, the jury specifically asked the shortlisted entrants to elaborate on how such connections were established. Eight projects, including STC, made it through to the final round and will be visited by the jury in September.

On 25 November, Minister of State Sander Dekker will present the School Building Award 2013.

When it comes to sustainability, quality and innovative structural connections, the STC and the St Nicolas Secondary School have a leg up on the competition. Both buildings have been fitted with Bolidtop^® 700 College flooring to create an aesthetic, colourful and stimulating learning environment. Due to its durability and low maintenance requirements, the flooring system is also extremely functional and instrumental in providing a high-performance environment for students to thrive in.

The combination of functionality and aesthetics made it possible to use only one Bolidt flooring system throughout the schools, with seamless connections between different spaces and classrooms. This just happens to be one of the criteria on the jury’s list.