HERMAN HERTZBERGER - Delft Montessori School

Delft Montessori School, 1960 was designed originally as four
classroom small school which differed from the standard of
the time which was usually six classrooms in primary schools
in the Netherlands. A plan for phased expansion, which
was underestimated in the original design, anticipated the
construction of additional classrooms as the need arose. Phased
planning was considered sympathetic to the idea that the
building is in a perpetual state of incompleteness, as a stimulus to
participation and user interaction.
The meandering form of the hall follows of a series of L-shaped
classrooms, each of which is expressed as an independent unit
like a house along a street. The stagger also sets up an articulated
zone at the entrance to each classroom, which mediates between
the public zone of the hall, and the private zone of the classroom,
much the way a front porch mediates between the public zone of
the street and the private zone of the house.
Daniel Mc Fadden
HERMAN HERTZBERGER - Delft Montessori School