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The small village Lexmond has an old primary school built in 1906. On the site of the school, the municipality planned to build apartment buildings for elderly. So the classrooms had to be demolished. In front of these classrooms an old monumental teachers house is located. This building will be preserved.

The schoolteachers house however has always been connected to the classrooms with its back facade. And now it will stand free in its surroundings. Housing corporation 'Goed Wonen Zederk' also responsible for the apartment buildings for elderly, asked Ruud Visser Architects to design something for the back facade which now will become visible.

 

The small village Lexmond has an old primary school built in 1906. On the site of the school, the municipality planned to build apartment buildings for elderly. So the classrooms had to be demolished. In front of these classrooms an old monumental teachers house is located. This building will be preserved.

The schoolteachers house however has always been connected to the classrooms with its back facade. And now it will stand free in its surroundings. Housing corporation 'Goed Wonen Zederk' also responsible for the apartment buildings for elderly, asked Ruud Visser Architects to design something for the back facade which now will become visible.

The schoolteachers house is now the residence of our local artist and poet, Dirk Vruggink. Dirk has written a poem about a beloved schoolteacher, who taught on this school about 50 years ago, called 'meester Haafkens'. Striking is that the apartment buildings for elderly will mainly be occupied by elderly of the village who actually have been taught by this schoolteacher. And from these apartment buildings the elderly will actually look out at the back facade of the schoolteachers house.

That's why we decided to place a part of this poem on the back facade of the old schoolteachers house:

'On a vague sepia photo - Taken in the schoolyard in front of the school - We are standing along with schoolteacher Mr. Haafkens - How long ago would that be'

The graphic design of the poem was made by Frederik de Wal. The text will be put on the wall in calligraphic writing, but magnified many times. The background color is grey, the text is white. Therefor the back facade will look like a blackboard, however faded. A suitable reference to the vague photo in the poem.