The proposal replaces the existing lake school and multi-purpose buildings, and consolidates the farm and the maintenance buildings into a single, new construction. The three resulting new buildings are conceived as an ensemble of volumes. This ensemble is coherent and yet differentiated: each new building “touches” the adjacent one and at the same time is entirely independent. Deliberately, the ensemble—which is generously permeable—gives rise to an eastern and a western side of the intervention where the former has a more public character than the latter.

Where the buildings “touch,” a sizeable carving into one of the volumes at ground level allows an otherwise volumetrically connected composition to feature two large openings. These openings set a relationship of passage and views between the front area of the site (eastern side) and the yard (on the western one). Additionally, the carvings become the covered outdoor area of the lake school building and the vestibule of the multi-purpose building, respectively. Each covered space precedes the entrance to either of those buildings. In other words, the singularity of the contact point between buildings signals the presence of two key spaces within the overall scheme, each condensing covered outdoor area, building access, and a transition between the two sides of the intervention.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Location: Steckborn, Switzerland

Type: School, Multipurpose Hall, Storage Facilities, Landscaping

Scale: 1.752 m2 (18,858 SF)

Status: Open Competition, 2020

Team: José Aragüez, Marcela Aragüez, Lihan Jin