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From the period of rebuilding in the 50’s, several unique school buildings were built in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. These buildings are valuable in the modern cultural heritage of Amsterdam. One of these schools is the building of educational institution de Wereldburger (previously de Witte Tulp), designed by J.J. van Leeuwen.

The building is characterized by its clear architectural structure, wide spaces of the playground and the spatial classrooms, which contain both daylight and a view.

  • project

    De Wereldburger

  • location

    Amsterdam

  • client

    Mevrouw Meijer Institution

  • function

    school

  • size

    3.000 m²

  • period

    2017 – 2018

  • status

    Tender Application

  • design

    studio PROTOTYPE

  • project architects

    Jeroen Steenvoorden in collaboration with Jeroen Spee

  • project team

    Ries van den Bosch, Mitchel Verkuijlen, Nout Barentsen, Luca Vatteroni, Georgie McEwan, Elisa Cardinali

  • renders

    studio PROTOTYPE

Especially in this current time, where the pressure to achieve in increasing, the need for a steady basis arises. The learning departments provide this basis and create space for individual attention from the teacher, but for group work as well. The small size of these departments guarantees sustainability of the child’s concentration.

The learning departments will get a warm ambiance, which makes the spaces feel like a living space. The world citizenship (Wereldburger means world citizen) could be connected thematically to create different departments with different world themes. This will increase the strength of the identity.

The outer space will be clearly defined as a stamp within park Osdorp. With this strategy, a clear line between the park and the school will be created. This increases the feeling of safety and security. Also, a side part of the building will be taken down, which results in the preferred relationship with the park.

New ideas,
built on old design


Over the past years, the school was adjusted according to the rules within the educational sector, but with no respect to the intrinsic fundaments of the design. The current situation of the school in combination with future developments in both education in general as well as in the education sector requires renovation.

The original design and the existing structure create opportunities to make the building suitable for modern education strategies in primary education. The unique porticos will be widened and will be used as learning department. Each department will be connected to a maximum of four classrooms.