School Gymnasium, Competition

In collaboration with Dieter Grundmann.

The site for this gymnasium lies directly along the small, but strong river (die Lavant), for which the locals have a double edge relationship, on the one side the nearness to the water is a quality and on the other side there is some feeling of danger.

This aspect of things next-to-one-another, this relationship of contradictions, we try to resolve through architectural body, a building as a volume, a protective vessel. From the inside, the wrapping wall holds the players and keeps from distraction, while the upper transparent glazing allows for plenty of natural light, ventilation and a view to the mountains in the distance. The glazing also allows for glances from the school building into the gymnasium. The roof seemingly floats above.

Running along the perimeter of the building body, wrapping it from the outside, is a long bench for the children and visitors, who may sit by the river embankment, yet from a distance. This become a place, the elements of the bench and protective wall, become spatial and socially constructive elements.

The new relationships that emerge are the new more intensive aware of the embankment to the the river, as an exterior „pausen“ raum now allows for.