Vooruitsig Primary School, DarlingEducational

Vooruitsig Primary School, situated in the West Coast Town of Darling, is a replacement school, built as part of the Department of Basic Education’s Accelerated School Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASIDI) Programme. The school complies with the clients brief to providing a building based on the same architectural principles and construction detailing used on our award winning Heideveld Primary School. The building is arranged around a hierarchy of sheltered courtyards. The large shared courtyard allows for outdoor play and assembly of all children, while the smaller covered courtyards between the classrooms provide protection from the external elements and act as a social gathering space for children of various age groups.  The design retained existing vegetation as far as possible in order to provide shaded play and pause areas. The design was developed to create an inspirational environment for the occupants, and at the same time be robust enough to reduce maintenance costs so that it can last for future generations of learners to come.