elementary school and new middle school feldkirchen

a brief description of a long process

2005 – cultural centre and music school
the gymnasium of the primary and secondary school has reached the end of its useful life, both thermally and structurally. the municipality also urgently needs an event hall, for which the gyms are being upgraded for multiple uses. together with a new music school and in synergy with the brass band, this will create a cultural centre for the municipality. as a result, the existing primary and secondary schools need to be thermally renovated. for economic reasons, the gymnasium must remain in place and be renovated to serve its new function. the concept for the new cultural centre must therefore be developed around and with the existing gymnasium and schools. the project proposed in the competition aims to achieve more: not only is the interior design of the cultural centre being conceived, but also a new outdoor component for community life – a cultural arena that is capable of offering a new main square and city identity for Feldkirchen. the new music school, gently embedded in the grounds, provides the basis for a sloping, spacious square that also connects village life with access to the galleries of the multifunctional hall. extensive renovations and adaptations of the existing hall and adjoining club rooms were technically necessary. subtle interventions and extensions integrated the existing structure into a coherent and robust overall concept for the interior and exterior of an event venue.

2012 – school centre
the renovation of the former sports secondary school from 1974/75 (architect Reinhold Kroh), which has since been converted into a new secondary school, as well as the older primary school, is urgently needed. a cost-effectiveness study by the province of Upper Austria (Bernhard Hinterreiter) showed that the renovation of the primary school wing was no longer economically viable, severely deficient in terms of functionality and unsuitable for the establishment of new educational concepts. for economic reasons, there was an extremely tight time frame available for planning and starting construction. this tight schedule resulted in extremely productive, focused and participatory project development by all those involved in the project: the mayor, municipal representatives, the headmistress of the primary school and the headmaster of the new secondary school, parents' representatives, architects and specialist planners. the NMS wing was perfectly viable as a hall school in the spatial layout and was seen as the starting point for the design of a shared entrance and connecting building and the adjoining primary school. new educational approaches – cluster areas, open classrooms, preparation rooms for all-day schooling, an open library and, last but not least, a multi-storey event venue for both schools were translated into a spatial design. In order to provide natural light to the considerable depth of both schools, optimal daylighting had to be consistently considered. acoustic and structural considerations determined the surface design. the positive spirit of the collaborative planning process is evident not least in the special, custom-made furniture: complementing the intention of open learning and supported the multiple use of all rooms. new educational concepts and the possibility of all-day schooling have been spatially implemented thanks to multifunctional occupancy and use in a space that corresponds to standard schools.