120 years of history and new design woven into one compact building

For more than a hundred years, the “Sacred Heart” on Beeklaan has housed a community school, begun as an important element of the Catholic facilities in The Hague’s working-class neighbourhood. The original building was designed by Eduard Cuypers as a primary school for the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart, in conjunction with the imposing St. Agnes Church, its presbytery and a convent.

Today, the trio of church, presbytery and school building remains a recognisable and characteristic feature of the area. From the street, and certainly when entering, the 1905 building impresses with its solidity, sobriety, height, and clear, symmetrical floor plan. The double entrance opens to the central hall, the double stairwell, and the building’s wings running at right angles to it. The stairwell is enchantingly beautiful: tall arched structures climb the stairs to the upper floors in a play of spatial forms – it is a building that captures the imagination, a building with history and character.

The new facilities to be housed in the centre include the children’s centre Tourmalijn, with a primary school, preschool, day-care, and gym-hall, as well as  a children’s health centre. The most characteristic historical part of the existing Sacred Heart will be integrated with a new building section into a compact whole, creating a new, spatial nucleus with areas for meeting, connecting, and cooperation. Old and new meet in this new heart, abundant daylight comes in from above, and connections are made between the various partners.

In the original design, the symmetrical layout of two entrance doors and halls reflected the perfectly logical division of the functions of the two cooperation partners – The Hague Municipality and Lucas Onderwijs. The children’s health centre will soon be housed behind the left-hand entrance, while behind the right-hand entrance Toermalijn, the toddlers of JongLeren, as well as the day-care and after-school care of 2Samen can be found. The building’s areas for Tourmalijn are divided into various learning sectors –‘domains’ – containing pupils of different ages that make up separate, cohesive groups to be taught in a manner tailored to their individual needs.