'Leutschenbach' school complex Zürich


Christian Kerez

  • Status:

    Realized

  • Education type:

    Municipal Education

  • Education level:

    Primary Education (pre-school + primary)
    Secondary Education

  • Address:

    Saatlenfussweg 3, 8050 Zürich

  • Client:

    Municipality of Zürich

  • Keywords:

    Community school

  • Programme:

    classrooms, administration, sports hall, restaurant, mensa and day care centre

  • Area:

    9.723m2

  • Number of classrooms:

    22 klassen


A compact, stacked school machine in a green school park

Parts of the building programme which are linked together in most schools – such as the exercise hall, the multifunctional hall and classrooms – are actually stacked up in the new school building in Leutschenbach. This is not because space is so tight on the   school site, but simply in order to conserve as much open green space as possible as a ‘school park’ for children to play in.
 

This school design by the architect Christian Kerez has a daring structure of five stories with a double height sports hall on top of this. The building seems to float above a transparent ground floor in which the offices, staffroom and dining area are sited next to the entrances. The load-bearing structure is a steel frame which is ingeniously carried by six tripod supports. There are no corridors in this school. There are 9 classrooms on each level, as well as a utilities area with a staircase which can be used as a fire escape and a lift around a central recreational area which can also be used as a teaching area. Two broad staircases have been placed in this area, connecting all the floors. On the fourth floor, the framework marks the special use of this level with the school library and the auditorium. The largest space in the school stretches out on the top floor, the double height sports hall, which was acoustically separated from the areas below it. The children can learn, read, have parties, and engage in sports on these highest floors with a breathtaking view over the surroundings. In this school all the walls are made entirely of glass. This ensures an optimum penetration of daylight and many views from the classrooms and from the central area in between. The internal walls between the central inner space and the classrooms are made of opaque glass.
 

All the space in this compact design is used, even in the basement, where there are six extra classrooms which get daylight through glazed strips at ground level. The steel structure of this building is completed with floors of reinforced concrete in which all the technical infrastructure is neatly incorporated. The fire safety for this building is guaranteed with a sprinkler installation and an extra fire escape, which is attached to the outdoor gallery surrounding every floor. This school building is ambitious and at the same time an experiment, both technically and architecturally. The building shows that the aim for an extreme compact design, and the aim for the optimum use of energy, materials and space can be combined with an extremely interesting spatial concept and great architectural ambition.