2009 - transformation of lycée classique - diekirch - luxembourg

The total planning and construction period amounted to 20 years. On the site of a barracks that had been extended and rebuilt several times one of Luxembourg’s leading schools in the fields of natural science, information technology and multi-media was developed through renovation, conversion and new construction work, while still keeping the school running.

The barracks dates from 1847 but after only two decades it was used for educational purposes. The central building with two wings was later extended, in 1960 a free-standing structure with an events hall, sports hall and classrooms was added, in 1970 a building for students in the lower grades. All of these buildings have been inadequate for real needs for some considerable time.

The new measures deal gently with the existing facilities. That the various elements come from different epochs remains clearly visible. The most important measures: the creation of a main entrance (fairfaced concrete), which was added to the central building – that was internally redesigned for the most part – in the form of a two-storey extension (with the library above the entrance); the addition of a new wing (fairfaced concrete) to the 1960s building by means of which the levels could be joined and a connection to the old barracks made; the complete renovation of the old building including the erection of a gallery on the first floor. Without a doubt the heart of the complex is formed by a generously dimensioned area between the buildings roofed with a steel and glass construction carried by twelve-metre-high columns. It creates a schoolyard that can be used in a variety of ways, a kind of communications area; in addition there is a new, almost completely free-standing building (aluminium panels) – nickname: chef’s hat, on account of its plan – which forms the connection to the adapted boarding accommodation wing.

Bauherr | Client: Bâtiment public

Planungsbeginn | Start of planning: 2000
Baubeginn | Start of construction: 2001
Fertigstellung | Completion: 2008
Nutzfläche | Usable floor area: 20.358 m2
Umbauter Raum | Enclosed volume: 105.000 m3
Freifläche | Outdoor area 1.200 m2
überdachter Innenhof | Roofed courtyard
Landschaftsplaner | Landscape planner: HVP
Projektleitung | Project management: HVP

G.G. Kirchner