Situated in Vienna, Austria, PPAG Architects shared with us their winning competition entry for the campus project consisting of a kindergarten, primary and junior high school. Their design is based on the new and ambitious education guidelines of the city of Vienna. The project promotes a typological paradigm shift regarding the spatial articulation of classroom and interior-exterior activities across the entire campus. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The classrooms, project areas and teachers’ rooms are organized around a central market place in a ‘cluster’ fashion . The school campus itself acts as a third educator.
The campus model itself is spatially articulated across various scales. It is related to the micro-scalar configuration of the desks, to spatial differentiation of every classroom into more introspective/quiet zones and more interactive areas among pupils. In addition, the campus model is organized in relation to the specific orientation of each classroom towards the exterior open spaces and the interior common ‘market spaces’ which are conditioned individually.
The concrete spatial actualization of the ‘clusters’ within the entire campus results in an ambitious urban assemblage within the urban development zone of Hauptbahnhof. In this sense, the project also also realizes the urgent pedagogical paradigm shift for the entire city at the micro scale.
