School of Fashion and Graphic Design in Utrecht, Netherlands

Only after construction work had begun and the foundations had been laid was the present architect called in. The banal spatial organization of the original scheme was respected; but the three tracts laid out around a courtyard were then enclosed in a delicate glazed skin of uniform height that has a gauze-like veiling and revealing effect. The exposure of building materials normally concealed from view, such as insulation slabs, reflects the unusual genesis of this building. At the north-east corner, the grid is interrupted and a light-filled atrium opens out in which a lecture hall is inserted. This architectural reworking of an existing scheme achieves an unusual strength of expression.