Koninklijk Atheneum Deurne

Koninklijk Atheneum Deurne stands in Antwerp’s Deurne district as a secondary school and modernist building designed by Eduard Van Steenbergen. Its yellow brick facade carries blue glazed-brick accents and blue handrails. Several wings follow the edge of a pentagonal plot, enclosing a playground with the same shape. Curved entrance forms and a semicircular sanitary block interrupt the complex’s otherwise rectangular geometry.

Construction finished in March 1941, although the building was already in use during April 1940. One wing gained an additional storey about twenty years later. The 1970s brought an extension by Eduard Van Steenbergen Junior, while renovations from 2002 to 2012 updated the facilities. Protected as a monument since 1995, the school remains part of Antwerp’s architectural heritage. The main building includes thirty-one classrooms, two gymnasiums, a large events hall, and a shower area originally intended for neighborhood use.