Long live the school

The elementary and new middle school in Puntigam, the fastest growing district in Graz, had long been struggling with the increasing demand for classrooms and communal spaces – 20 elementary school classes and all-day care for 500 students were needed. The new cluster school has a bright and open design, and with materials such as brick, clay, and hemp, which are quite unusual for an educational building, we opted for a low-tech approach that promises longevity.

»The new Puntigam Education Campus offers students varied and contemporary learning landscapes with clusters illuminated from four sides, including protected open spaces. The large shared school garden is an another added value for the all-day school.«

Robert Diem, Franz&Sue partner

As far as the eye can see

Coming from the forecourt, the students enter the open central cloakroom, a two-storey air space from which one can see all the way to the rear of the building. This is followed by a spacious assembly hall and cafeteria, which in turn connect to the schoolyard. The assembly hall and cafeteria are only separated by a mobile curtain, which can be adjusted to create one large, open hall with stage situations for events. The gymnasium with window fronts facing the greenery is embedded in this spatial structure, too, so that the children can look out into nature while exercising, along with a skylight that provides additional daylight from above.

»At the Puntigam Education Campus, the colour and material concept creates a particularly warm atmosphere in the clusters, in which many generations of students will feel at home. The walls are plastered with clay or covered with felt to be used as bulletin boards. There are multiple seating niches and retreats in the form of built-in carpentry furniture, seating steps, or a play tower. We’ve really put an incredible amount of attention to detail in this school.«

Martino Libisch, Franz&Sue project manager

No chance for boredom

After regular classes, students can move on to the all-day school, which consists of rooms for handcrafts, making music, fitness, and other leisure activities. In order to offer additional opportunities for playing, retreat, but also for storage space, we equipped the centre of the all-day school with wooden boxes. Here you can find, amongst other things, bookshelves, walk-in storage boxes, or retreat niches with curtains, a tunnel, or a castle.

Made to last

Sustainable and at the same time simple, built with natural materials – that was our claim for the school project. That’s why we used 50-cm-thick vertical cored bricks for the infill of the exterior walls, which we covered with clay plaster on the inside and only with 3-cm-thick hemp panels on the outside. This strategy provides ecological thermal, heat, and sound protection and replaces conventional polystyrene thermal insulation. The plaster façade on the incised terraces/courtyards is clad with a timber curtain wall with climbing plants growing up it. The clay plaster inside creates a particularly comfortable indoor climate for the pupils. This use of building materials with low consumption of manufacturing energy, a positive impact on indoor air quality, and excellent disposal potential minimises the carbon footprint of the building.

And the story goes on ...

Currently, we are busy planning the second phase of the education campus: the existing new middle school will be renovated and supplemented with additional floors to accommodate four clusters with three classes each. Furthermore, we are building a polytechnic school in the courtyard with two classes focused on gastronomy and care.