Atelier Kempe Thill

Inspiring young people to pursue a career in a technical profession is becoming increasingly complicated in Europe. Together with the city of Genk, two Belgian experts in professional training—Syntra and VDAB—decided to build a new educational facility for the Limburg region that shall function as a stimulator and be seen as new benchmark for Flanders and Europe. The competition brief thus called for the invention of a new type of education building, now already completed by Atelier Kempe Thill, and this resulted in an interesting typological experiment. The new T2 campus combines spaces for theoretical and practical education with spaces for recreation, conferences, and exhibitions.

The extended opening hours (07:00–23:00 every working day) help to further the school’s role as an education building by providing a platform for the industry to showcase new technologies. The school has thus become an inspiring and dynamic technology hub that sparks in young people a fascination for technical professions. The clients desired a building with short distances and high flexibility in order to stimulate a maximum of synergy between the different departments of the school and to be able to adjust to future needs.