The Netherlands' Firebird School: Clusters for A Flexible Learning Environment

Innovative teaching methods and organisational change make new demands on our future learning environments. The Brink and the Laak Clusters are two related examples of a new type of building for a community in the Netherlands. The Firebird School (<i>Vuurvogel</i>), a primary school for students from ages 4 to 12, is currently housed in the Brink Cluster and will move to the Laak when it opens in 2006. The Firebird School’s needs and the resulting flexible building design are described here along with useful characteristics for creating flexibility in the learning environment.