Not the Trailer: Provisional Classrooms for Primary Schools

Many schools have to contend with the tension between an inflexible building and constantly changing requirements for use. With this in mind, WiMBY! (Welcome into My Backyard! a Rotterdam-based organization for revitalizing post-war housing areas) commissioned three designers to develop "SchoolParasites as an attractive alternative to the usual trailer-type provisional classrooms. "SchoolParasites are provisional structures, flexible in application and striking in design; the first three were erected in the Rotterdam suburb of Hoogvliet in spring 2004. The aim of the program is to put these models into production and to make them available to every school in the Netherlands and abroad. "Not the Trailer documents the designs of Barend Koolhaas, Onix, and Christoph Seyferth. It also considers far-reaching questions on the interaction of education and architecture, on the inventiveness of the schools themselves, on permanence and temporariness, and on how intelligent, flexible solutions can play a role in the restructuring of post-war urban areas.