School Complex Extension, Mettmenstetten

When Mettmenstetten received its first school building in the 19th century, it was built outside the village, but centrally between the two settlements of Unter- and Obermettmenstetten. The contradiction between these two readings -'outside in the centre' - still characterises the school grounds today, and thus also informs the potentials and challenges of the project task.

On the one hand, extending the school, aims to strengthen the school’s public perception, i.e. to emphasise its central location. To achieve this, the structure is densified considerably. However, this will not inevitably lead to the school grounds becoming the centre of the village. The school has long since lost its image of a village school and instead has increasingly turned into a 'school campus' accessible to everyone, in park-like surroundings. The 'school buildings in the park' character also informs the expression of the new school buildings: they become integrated into the landscape and orient themselves on the famous pavilion schools of the post-war period - such as by Jacobsen, Scharoun or Paillard - that seek an intimate relationship to light, air and nature in order to create a stimulating, free learning environment. The open space takes on the challenge of tightly connecting Ober- and Untermettmenstetten, ‘sewing their fraying edges’. The paths between the two settlement centres – together with the accompanying new wooden structures – determine the main directing orientation on site. They generate enclosures, which determine the orientation of the buildings and assign the various uses.