Franz&Sue

Description

«The renovation of the old, dark 1950s school has to be at least as good as our new primary school building next door.» That’s the standard we set for this project. The decisive intervention was to top off the two existing classroom wings with another storey, clear out the cramped courtyard between them, and cover it with a shed roof. The result is a sunlit, three-storey school hall that gives the building a spacious workshop character. Thanks to the generous furniture budget provided by the City of Graz, the long corridors have been transformed into lively communal spaces, turning the school into a highly valued learning environment. We topped off the two classroom wings with light, wood-frame structures and connected them into four learning clusters via timber platforms. The clusters share group rooms, loggias, and central learning and break areas. With the multifunctional furniture in combination with wooden boxes, a few curtains and the versatile rooms created around them, young people can enjoy a variety of unique learning spaces. Two tree sculptures set the scale for the large school hall and serve as a giant bulletin board. Surrounded by the adjacent after-school care centre, workshops, cloakroom, library and staff offices, the hall forms the central meeting place. The extension for the new polytechnic school, located between the middle school and the existing gymnasium, was likewise designed in lightweight timber construction. Altogether, the project now provides space for 350 students across 14 classes.