1. Prize
Selective Competition, Zurich, 2018
Realization 2019-2024
Weyell Zipse und Atelier Loidl Landschaftsarchitekten
Photography: Daisuke Hirabayashi
The centrepiece of the Guggach school complex in Zurich is the foyer, designed as an unheated intermediate zone. It remains open in summer and is closed in winter: With manually operated sliding doors, the foyer adapts flexibly to the changing seasons. It emphasizes a school building architecture that radiates lightness and openness and seeks a connection to the outside space. This is where the children start their day by singing together on Monday mornings, learn in the open-air classrooms and enjoy their breaks outdoors. The foyer opens up invitingly to the neighbourhood park – like a large stage. On the ground floor, it creates visual links to the street and provides access to the neighbourhood facilities such as the library, the underground double sports hall and the assembly hall.
The roof, inspired by greenhouse construction, can also be opened, while the integrated sunshade provides shade when required. In combination with air vents and the energy of the sun, users can actively influence the indoor climate. The quality of stay and atmosphere also vary in line with the climate: depending on the situation, an outdoor space becomes an indoor space – or something in between.
In addition to its actual function, the symmetrically arranged school building also offers space for the unplanned – so-called ‘spaces for possibilities’, which are freely available and whose use can be constantly renegotiated and redesigned. These include the front zones of the school clusters, the two open-air classrooms on the park side, which extend the range of activities on offer, and the large staircase in the atrium, which can be used as a seating platform. Foldable partition walls in the group rooms and the multi-purpose room also allow the rooms to be adapted at short notice. This creates a diverse range of rooms that can react flexibly to requirements and is robust at the same time.
The school building is constructed almost exclusively from prefabricated components. In order to optimise weight, material consumption and long-term flexibility of use, the building was constructed as a skeleton structure. Columns, beams and ceilings consist of industrially prefabricated parts and are stabilised by wind bracing attached to the façade. The open primary structure ensures efficient natural lighting of the deep room layers. The consistent separation of structure, building services and fit-out can be experienced in many places and is consciously integrated into the atmospheric design. The atrium, as a usable layer located outside the insulation perimeter, could be realised simply and cost-effectively.