Allschwil

Today we present a competition in Allschwil, next to Basel, Switzerland.
Done with Davide Lorenzato Arqs, Martin Kurmann Arqs and the collaboration of Xmade (http://www.xmade.eu/) and renderings by DL+ Rendering (http://www.dlplus.tk/)


The competition asked for the creation of a primary and secondary school with day-school, music school and gym, a big program for a sprawl with very small tissue.


On site view showed us the only free space of big size in the area.

 
And some small schools in the area, each with its own controlled exterior space.


Very fast we came with the idea of raising the floor to put program below it and maintain the usable free space.


First operation: modify ground floor to be protected from floods.


Second operation: put the big program a cut it to allow circulation.


Third operation: cover with a new ground and plant trees: recuperate nature.


Forth operation: place the classroom program as houses, taken from the environment.


With this operation we were able to maintain the "empty" space, creating controlled spaces for the kids and recognizable schools, at a more human scale.


The resulting spaces were carefully set to relate to the environment.


Creating entrance spaces related to urban voids.


Or central voids as a relational space for the kids.

 
With this double scale of big pieces in ground floor


And small pieces in upper floors we were able to create a good relation with the empty space.


Each program "owned" an exterior space both in ground floor.


And in the p+1 new floor.

 
Creating a school that, even with the program we had to accommodate, was able to merge with the surroundings.


Becoming part of the neighbourhood and maintaining the void.


Model shows the classrooms as "found shapes" in the environment.


Here we can see the raised floor that accommodates the big program below, and creates a big central patio as reunion space.


The upper platform created entrance porches from both arrival streets.


Entrance patio for primary school.


Ground floor rising to create elevated platform.


The five houses: two for primary school, two for secondary school and one for administration, each with its "own" exterior space and without interactions between primary and secondary school.


Program.


-2: gym.


-1: technical rooms.


+0: day school, music school, workshops, gym and access to administration, primary and secondary school.


+1: primary school with controlled exterior space, secondary school and administration with controlled exterior space.


+2: primary and secondary school.


+3: primary and secondary school.


+4: secondary school.


Roof tops showing the small scale of the actuation.


Circulations: the big rocks in ground floor break to create circulation.


Those circulation spaces are colour as the housing to generate attachment to the school.


Gym as underground space in contact with patio and secondary school lobby.

 
The facade was of concrete and certain ceramic details, with colour corresponding to the program.


Frontal view showing the idea of the school as a small town.


Ground floor was formalized with big openings while the classrooms had a "domestic" scale.

Primary school yellow, secondary school was blue and administration was white.


The creation of big relation spaces both in ground and first floor would allow for intense social interaction.


Sinking the gym liberated big areas.


An exterior concrete shell with colour cuts.


More information about the project under the _allschwil tag
http://raichdelrio.blogspot.com/search/label/_allschwil


More about us at
http://www.raichdelrio.com
http://raichdelrio.blogspot.com

Mabillon 5

Today we present a school competition in Switzerland, in the "Comune de Monthey" done with rkstudio (http://www.rkstudio.ch/) and x-made

First thing we saw when we went to the site was a great green void that we wanted to maintain as maximum as possible.

In this site was also a pre-existence which we had to keep, again being a piece in the middle of the green.

Our first move was to clean the site from everything not needed: we only kept the existing school and the pre-existence as pieces in the middle of a greens cape like only in Switzerland can be.

Then we put the main program again as pieces in the greens cape, as free pieces with minimum direction so the green would flow through all the site.

And then we modified the site to put the gyms + the rest of the program, creating with this movement a green space at +4m that would be a controlled space for the kids to play.

We understood this project as a combination game, as a game of different geometries to fit the program in it.

A combination game that would dodge the trees to keep the idea of "learning in the nature" or "learning in the trees"

By this movements and ideas we created much smaller pieces that will keep the existing values of the site.

And of course will fit better with the surroundings.

Image of the model wit surroundings.

Image of the model wit surroundings.

Image of the model wit surroundings. In this image you can appreciate how the different pieces create "doors" to access to the building.

The elevated patio creates a covered path that crosses the whole site and connects both ends.

The school and the day-school share a common garden in a controlled space.

School is divided in two blocks and day-school occupies the north block.

Only the middle block is 3 stories high, creating a changing volume.

The gym is two floors under the earth, giving extra space for storages, kitchen, changing rooms...

The gym occupies a floor by itself, being able to connect or separate the use of the two fields.

But reaches the light in the ground floor level, having the elevated patio above it.


The structure allows trees in +4m level terrace, making it part of the greens cape.


Entrance spaces are created between volumes, that become an abstract shape with the ceramic and glass horizontal bands.

The facade makes openings at several heights, making the trees part of the project.

Elevation showing the volumes as abstract shapes and the floor rising to +4m.

The several blocks have different heights, playing with the environment

Trees are planted all over the site, creating the "learning in the trees" experience.

windows occur at several heights, giving different experiences at the different floors.

Section showing the gym, with the greens cape on top of it and the music school over facing it.

Section showing the gyms with the connection as a public plaza in level +0, changing rooms in level -1 and storage in level -2

Model shot revealing relationship with pre-existence, that becomes a door with the last volume and gives entrance to the covered path.

new street created with the block defining the space.

Entrance ambit with tree embedded in the raised floor.

Phase 1: old school and new school exist together.

Phase 2: old school is demolished and new playing ground appears.

Phase 3: new school appears and finishes the set.

The two south blocks are school. The north block is day-school and dentist in the upper floors and restaurant in the lower floor. Fanfares happen in the ground floor, as an independent issue.

Volumes maximize the sun in the free areas.

More info about this project under the mabillon 5 tag
http://raichdelrio.blogspot.com/search/label/_mabillon%205

More info about us
www.raichdelrio.com
raichdelrio.blogspot.com