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'Noordeinde Palace': Griftland College's temporary school

An innovative, temporary school site providing modern facilities for students while the new main building is being built.

In the heart of Soest, an exciting new chapter is being written at Griftland College with the introduction of a temporary school building, affectionately called “Paleis Noordeinde.” This ambitious project, coordinated by Griftland College, in collaboration with consulting firm Bos and supplied by modular construction specialist Algeco, will provide a modern and efficient learning environment during the construction of the new main building, scheduled to open in August 2026.

  • Locatie
    Soest
  • Branche
    Education
  • Bouwtijd
    2 weken
  • Aantal units
    90
  • Schoolgebouw

The story behind the nickname “Palace Noordeinde”

The name “Noordeinde Palace” arose at a special moment during the summer vacations, just after the temporary building was installed. The building came about during a period of extremely hot temperatures. While the main Griftland College building was often sweltering and muggy, the new temporary building offered a welcome surprise: air conditioning.

Johan van Dam, team leader 2/3/4 mavo and also coordinator of the project, explains with a smile how the nickname was born: "It came here at a time when it was so incredibly hot. And here we had air conditioning. So we were sitting well, we were sitting beautifully, much better than in the main building, because we had nice and cool here. Then we immediately took advantage of all these benefits. Then it was already called the palace right away."

Its location at the end of Noorderweg provided the rest of the nickname. "And that is, it's right here on Noorderweg. So what is it called now? The palace at the end of Noorderweg? So it's Paleis Noordeinde, “ Johan adds, referring to the famous Royal Palace Noordeinde in The Hague. Since then, the name quickly spread among students and teachers, and the temporary school building soon became popularly known as “Paleis Noordeinde.”

A modern educational environment

The temporary school building represents an important transition for Griftland College, accommodating approximately 500 of the total 1,350 students. The building contains 16 modern classrooms, each capable of accommodating at least 30 students. It also features four offices, two stairwells, and two student plazas where students can congregate. Safety features are fully in place, with all the necessary items to meet safety regulations, such as fire doors and smoke detectors.

With air conditioning, plenty of natural light and improved acoustic solutions, the building provides a comfortable and learning-enhancing environment. Johan shared his first impressions, "It was just slick, neat. Yes, I would call it sleek. Grand. I think WOW. There's really something there."

Thanks to Algeco's advanced modular construction technology, the building meets all modern standards, including CO2 sensors and a heat recovery system, making the temporary school not only comfortable but also environmentally friendly.

Expectations exceeded

The temporary building has also been well received by students and parents. Griftland College hosted introductory evenings at the new location, where parents expressed satisfaction with the facility and were impressed with the amenities.

Erik, Griftland's facility manager, explained, "We were initially concerned about acoustics and the metal interior, which would make it difficult to hang things on the walls. We were also concerned about noise issues, a challenge we often encountered in previous temporary buildings."

Johan complemented with a look at the past, "When I started at the school over thirty years ago, we had what you call in English barracks - terrible temporary housing. Then we had several renovations with more temporary buildings, and noise was always a problem. That was our big concern with this new temporary housing. Here you can still hear others, especially someone with a heavy voice, but it's not a big problem."

As for the biggest improvements, Johan said, "The facilities are much better than before. We had gas-fired heaters then, but now we have air conditioning, an air regulator and even a CO2 detector. The climate control is just much better."

A model for future teaching spaces

Griftland College's temporary school serves as a valuable trial for the permanent building that is still under development. The layout with separate domains for MAVO, HAVO and VWO, and learning squares for different educational streams, already offers a glimpse of the final educational ideal. Johan says enthusiastically, "Personally, I think it's great that we can already practice our new educational set-up in this temporary accommodation. For example, we have the MAVO classes on the first floor and the HAVO/VWO classes above, which gives tranquility and structure. This allows the students to concentrate better and gives us valuable insights for the future."

This set-up not only offers practical advantages, but also allows the school to make preliminary adjustments that will further optimize the new permanent building.

Sustainability

Sustainability played an important role in the choice of Algeco for this project. However, Johan also stressed that the budget was also very important: “Yes, sustainability was important, but money is also important of course.” Although the modular units came from Spain, their energy efficiency was a decisive factor.

In this temporary building, the climate control systems were significantly improved over previous facilities, with systems that help accurately regulate temperature and air quality. Johan added that this concern for sustainability was important, but always had to be balanced with cost.

Customer testimonial

Griftland College: “The collaboration with Algeco was a really positive experience. There was strong mutual cooperation, which was especially important in the initial phase of the project, where there was a lot of uncertainty. We made extreme efforts on both sides, which gave us a lot of confidence in the process. We are so far very satisfied with the result and the collaboration, and I would certainly recommend to other schools and foundations to use Algeco."

Take a look inside “Noordeinde Palace!

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