Secondary School

ESALA, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Project idea

The provision of new schools in established urban areas poses specific design challenges that are not common to schools on green field sites: the need to build to high densities to make the best possible use of scarce and expensive land; the desire to conserve the historic urban heritage; the need to enhance the quality of the urban environment; the obligations to respect the rights of adjoining properties to light, access, and privacy; and the requirements to protect the users from the noise and pollution of urban transport. Responding to such constraints, in addition to satisfying the exacting requirements of current educational programs, requires imagination and design skills of the highest order.
Proposals to build a new secondary school close to the busy commercial centre of the city of Geneva posed just such a challenge and to meet it the
authorities organized a two-stage architectural competition.

Project description

A school is a place where a child spends most of their childhood days in. This project aims to create a learning environment for children by integrating the indoors and outdoors. The rooms and spaces are arranged along courtyards. The transition from the entrance and outdoors to the inside is a journey through the courtyards with winding pathways.

The 16,000-square-meter site is situated near Geneva’s mainline railway station and the city center, on the edge of parkland, surrounded by dense housing. Adjoining the site is a massive postal sorting office within the perimeter of the station, some old blocks of apartments for rent, an imposing turn-of-the-century primary school, and the parkland mentioned above. This is an island of green in a highly urbanized environment and includes some magnificent, protected trees and a large house dating back to 1755, but sadly in need of repair. On the edge of the park are other buildings, all in public use, namely a church, a community center, and a restaurant.

The highly compact architecture includes a wide variety of indoor spaces which, in particular, liven up the layout of teaching areas and other parts of the building. The structure is coherently expressed but includes some very large spans (15 m and 30 m) that might be expensive to build. The possibility of reducing most of these spans needs to be examined. As recommended by the judges at the close of the first round of the competition, similar disciplines have been grouped on the same floors. The teaching areas opening out onto the patios are well chosen, in terms of the degree of natural light. The design lends itself to flexibility of use, from the point of view of adapting to changes in educational methods.

Areas open to the public outside of school hours (gymnasium, auditorium, media library, etc.) are grouped to the north. Entrances are clearly defined and can be made independent. Access to the various gymnasia is inadequate.

Technical information

Meandering pathways in the courtyard create interest and spaces for pause and are created in the central core space of the building. This core also has an outdoor canteen. Bridges connect the various blocks together. The bridge with its glass facade offers views into the courtyard, creating interest in the movement pattern. A grand entrance welcomes students as well as adults into the building. Trees and landscape beside the main entrance make it visually pleasing. It acts as a baluster for the main staircase. It ensures that diffused light and natural ventilation are received in interior parts of the building.

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