2023, ern+ heinzl Architekten + Anderegg Partner AG
Awards
Public Winner in the Archello Awards 2024 "Secondary School Building of the Year" category
Loose individual buildings shape the urbanistic appearance of the school district. Large areas in the south and east and the clearly visible mountain range of “Jura” in the north are formative. • The new school building is also proposed as a freestanding extension of the existing Carpe-Diem school building. Coming from “Chäsiweg”, it forms a structural completion of the school area to the south and gives the existing playground a spatial closure. With its positioning, the new building respects both the external facilities of the existing building and its visual references. It creates space for a second spacious playground facing “Wolfwiler” street. This can also be seen as a prelude to further future development of the area with additional public buildings. • The old and the new school building prospectively form an ensemble, which will be accompanied by outdoor spaces of different sojourning quality that merge into one another. While the two buildings appear as individuals that are linked by their common exterior spaces, they are functionally connected to each other underground via a corridor. This is designed as an attractive continuation of the existing basement and leads directly into the central foyer of the new building. In this manner, the exchange of pupils and teachers between the school buildings can be guaranteed at all times and in all seasons. • The new building is conceptualised as a reinforced concrete skeleton structure on a uniform construction grid to ensure the greatest possible flexibility of use with variable room sizes. For the same reason, the emergency staircase was moved to the outside of the building. The inner logic becomes an image of the external appearance. • The arrangement system not only structures the interior spaces, but is also transferred to the design of the façade. Narrow and elegant fair-faced concrete screens rhythmise the exterior of the school building and give it a variable appearance depending on the angle of view or location. The screens to the north and east are less deep than those to the south and west. As a result they react to the different intensity of the sun and are consequently an integral part of the energy concept. • The clarity and openness of the construction and the façade are also perceptible inside the school building. The floor plans are zoned with few means - staircase core, sanitary rooms and shafts. A central foyer is formed, which is surrounded by the learning rooms. These are partially connected to each other and to the foyer via glass surfaces and allow, if desired, a communicative exchange. The materiality is simple and direct: the statically relevant parts are made out of fair-faced concrete, the variable, space-creating elements are made from wood or glass. Technical equipment is, if possible, placed on the surfaces. This creates a studio atmosphere that invites for use and gives freedom of action for different forms of learning.
Here are a few voices and thoughts from the SE1a class on Domus Scientiae
"It feels like you're in the future. The building is very modern and big and also mega beautiful." Leona "I enjoy working in such a beautiful school building." Ilona "I really like the classroom because it's big and there's lots of light." Marilena "My first impression was "WOW". I like the concrete elements and the modern lights." Zoe "You very quickly feel at home in this school building. I feel like I've been going to school here for years. " Lara "I think it's very cool. I like the structure!" Fernando "There are lots of windows in the classroom. So you can always see the surroundings. I think it's really nice that a lot of it is black." Alyssa "The auditorium is huge! I also like the fact that we have workrooms next to the classroom." Lena "I think it's really nice and big. You feel very comfortable. You almost don't notice that you're at school. I find that I can work really well here." Luca