LOCALARCHITECTURE
Rudolf Steiner School of Geneva
best architects 20
education buildings
Place
Geneva, Switzerland
Studio
Photos
Matthieu Gafsou
Description
PROJECT
At the beginning of
the concept for the extension of the school, is the school itself. The
buildings, designed and built by the architect Jean-Jacques
Tschumi in the late 1980s, are characterised by their organic forms that
enclose a courtyard.
INTERIORS &
EXTERIORS
The interiority of
this uncovered courtyard is a prelude to the «exteriority» of the educational
spaces, turned towards the landscape and oriented along the movement of the sun.
The construction pays homage to Rudolf Steiner’s lecture «True aesthetic laws
of form».
PAST & FUTURE
The current project
proposes a continuation of this approach, respecting the spirit of the site
and the school, seeking to discover the essence of the initial plan, offering a
contemporary reading and intensifying the construction principle, thanks in particular
to 3D tools. The organic work developed by Tschumi thus takes on a new and
sublimated form. By arranging the new spaces on the roof, the system is
prolonged and completes the «crowning» of the building by activating the link
between the place and the sky. Originally planned to support one more floor,
the existing concrete structure carries the new frame.
EMOTIONS
Each building element
manifests itself formally and independently. It offers its users – students
and teachers – a rich and varied range of emotions. The relationship thus
established between the different components does not lead to a unitary, rigid
body but pushes the assembly towards an elementary emotional organicity.