Innovation Partnership School Buildings

Amsterdam will halve the use of primary raw materials by 2030 and become fully circular by 2050 – according to the Circular Strategy 2020-2025 proposed by the municipality. To meet Amsterdam’s circularity ambitions and the increasing demand for schools, the city government has initiated the Innovation Partnership School Buildings program to build nine to thirty “high-quality, flexible and sustainable” schools in ten years. Circlewood – an alliance of architects, engineers, builders, and researchers, with OMA as the Creative Director and co-designer – has developed a modular wood system (the HoutKern Bouwmethode) to create a variety of schools, which can be easily transformed throughout the schools’ lifecycles to accommodate changing needs.