ERA21 #04/2024 Not Just Elementary Schools

kniha motto

The Use of the Art of Teaching »

Jan Amos Komenský

That the art of teaching be placed on a proper foundation is to the advantage—

1. Of parents, who up to this time have for the most part been uncertain how much to expect from their chlidren. They hires tutors, besought them, strove to win them over by gifts, changed them, just as often in vain as with any result. But now that the method of teaching has been reasoned out with unerring accuracy, it will, with the assistance of God, be impossible that the desired result should not follow.

(...)

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news

completed project

Phoenix Rising from Flour. The Automatic Mills Adaptation in Pardubice »

Lukáš Smetana, Zdenek Balík; Jan Šépka, Jan Bárta, Marek Fischer / Šépka architekti /; Martin Prokš, Marek Přikryl / Prokš Přikryl architekti /; Petr Všetečka, Robert Václavík, Karel Menšík, Tereza Novotná / TRANSAT architekti

It’s been more than ten years since the Winternitz Mills in Pardubice—one of Josef Gočár’s first completed works— closed down. The premises were then repeatedly offered for sale to city hall, while the independent “Mills to the City” initiative sparked a public discussion about their future. In 2016, still without a clear decision from city hall, the entire complex was acquired by architect Lukáš Smetana. The new owner quickly established a foundation with the vision to revive this national cultural monument. In collaboration with renowned architects, and based on a series of talks with the city of Pardubice and the Pardubice Region, a new development concept was drawn-up to transform this abandoned brownfield into a vital “cultural island” at the confluence of the rivers Chrudimka and Elbe.

intro

Snake Meets Zebra »

Alžběta P. Brůhová

In today's fast-paced world, we want everything right now, or maybe on the next business day. But there are things worth waiting for. “Ages like fine wine,” goes the saying. And the same could be said about the small entrance area renovation project at an elementary art school in Pečky. During the time between the first sketches in 2018 and the project completion in 2023, this Central Bohemian municipality changed its council three times, but the project budget also increased tenfold. And the architect succeeded in convincing the client that a comprehensive renovation was better than partial improvements (which boiled down to a new fence, basically). In the end, the entrance area got a new wheelchair accessible landscaping with a contrasting granite paver block motif by artist Adéla Součková. Hopefully, the subtle blend of architecture and art will inspire other clients of public and private projects alike.

theory

Do We Design Schools for the Present or for the Future? »

Ondřej Tuček

Today's schools are different from those that were built fifty or a hundred years ago, just as our life is different from the life of previous generations. Among their most characteristic features is probably the requirement to be able to change and adapt to new technologies, situations, problems and challenges. This includes critical work with information, its evaluation, and verification. Similar to office buildings, teaching areas in schools are now changing from closed-off, utilitarian rooms to connected, flowing spaces interspersed with private nooks.

completed project

Sustainability Fair. Reggio School in Encinar de los Reyes, Madrid »

Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation

The new school in Encinar de los Reyes in the Madrid metropolitan area is an exuberant jumble of forms, shapes, materials and colors. A surprising hybrid between factory and modern art gallery, it's not in the least concerned with looking like a serious institution. And that makes sense—the exterior is only a material manifestation of the unorthodox programming based on the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy. Combining energy-efficiency and material reduction, but conscious of its social and ecological effect as well, the building is a living experiment in more-than-human architecture.

practice

Current State, Development and Construction of School Buildings in Czechia »

Tomáš Zdvihal

There are more than eleven thousand schools of all levels in the Czech Republic, attended by almost two million pupils and students. Therefore, school buildings represent a key typology, shaping individuals and society as a whole. From an architectural point of view, school buildings have always been at the center of attention for exactly this reason, and that interest has only increased in recent years. Schools are now one of the most common topics for architectural competitions. Focusing on recent competitions, the following text analyzes current trends and challenges in education architecture with concrete examples in the Czech Republic. 

interview

School Is the Foundation of Life »

Only a few Czech architecture studios have the same level of experience designing schools and kindergartens as XTOPIX. Repeatedly succeeding in architecture competitions, Barbora and Pavel Buryška now have under their belt several completed projects in different corners of the country. What’s the secret of their success? What are the things to keep in mind when designing schools? How to deal with the Czech Republic’s “over-regulated” building laws? In an interview for this issue of ERA21, we discussed all that and more.

completed project

Nature All Around. Elementary School Extension in Studenec »

Adam Cigler, Martin Junek / Chrama

The eye-catching entrance façade of the Studenec school extension certainly gives off a good first impression, double-height and glazed floor-to-ceiling, punctuated only by slim reddish concrete columns and beams. Hidden from view from the main street, the extension connects to the back of the existing school, designed by Karel Hubáček in the 1950s (though the design is almost illegible now under a layer of thermal insulation and new PVC windows). Hubáček’s emphasis on light and airy corridors and classrooms was a source of great inspiration for the architects, who hoped the new building would feel the opposite of cramped or constricting. On the inside, the common areas are left minimalist and austere, with exposed concrete columns and ceilings, while the classrooms create a welcoming atmosphere with light-coloured noise-absorbing, timber cladding.

completed project

School of the Quarry. Community School in Kamenná Lhota »

Boris Redčenkov, Prokop Tomášek, Jaroslav Wertig / A69 – architekti

Growing gradually around an existing family home, perched at the edge of a flooded quarry near Havlíčkův Brod, is a small set of inconspicuous outbuildings. The latest addition is a self-built alternative school for the client and neighborhood’s children, a project inspired by a lack of suitable elementary schools in the area. The new school had to be situated far enough from the house, to avoid disrupting family life and allow it its own autonomy. Finally, a perfect spot was found in place of a cleared-out old rubble dump. The building is nestled into the slope, seamlessly integrated with the landscape, its flat green roof extending the meadow in front of the house. From the outside, its fully-glazed and curved façade is the only visible part of the structure. The building is used all day; by the local home-schooling group and a small Chinese medicine practice in the mornings, and as a yoga studio in the afternoons.

completed project

Sustainability First. COPTH Secondary Technical School Remodelling in Prague »

Pavel Šulc; Jiří Tencar / Ecoten

A school building from the 1970s on Českobrodská Street has been transformed into a 21st century educational institution. The existing labyrinthine layout was replaced by a new and simpler arrangement, fulfilling the varied space requirements of the different study programs. Wide circulation spaces doubling as meeting areas became the core of the building, their big windows offering views to the surrounding nature and to the new central outdoor courtyard. Employing a wide range of carbon effective and energy-saving systems, the previously inefficient school with high operation costs has been transformed into a Positive Energy Building with smart rainwater management.

completed project

Gray Variety. Elementary School Extension in Bratislava »

Martin Hudec, Katarína Bergerová / ATOMstudio

A new elementary school extension in Bratislava adds a discreet and contemporary touch to the existing building, built together in the 1980s with the neighboring housing estate. Five new classrooms fit inside an extra floor on top of the existing building, three more in an entirely new wing, oriented East to West and partially filling the free side of the central school courtyard. Connected to the main building only by a narrow corridor, the new wing formally follows the original pavilion-type layout of the school complex, preserving its distinct figure. The understated gray extension follows the same logic of arranging wall apertures too, differentiating from the existing building only in façade material.

completed project

School, Wrapped. Guliver Private Elementary School in Banská Štiavnica »

Richard Murgaš, Martin Lepej, Lukáš Cesnak / RICHARD MURGAŠ ARCHITECTS

 In 2021, the new building of the Guliver Private Elementary School opened its doors in Banská Štiavnica, in central Slovakia. Neighboring the school are large public sports fields—the entire complex built on an industrial brownfield on the southern edge of the city. In the school’s close vicinity there is the heritage building of the František shaft, a memento of the city’s gold mining history, but there is also a commercial center and a few rows of suburban family homes. The school itself is divided into two wings perpendicular to each other, the taller one housing classrooms, the canteen and offices; the lower one containing two gyms and a swimming pool. The four-storey classroom wing is wrapped in a semi-transparent, fabric tension structure for shading, offset about one meter away from the façade. The textile’s soft flowing geometry and permeable quality easily makes it the dominant architectural feature of the entire building, contrasting nicely with the austere white block of the gym.

idea

My School »

Zuzana Sankotová Morávková

The school building typology has changed fundamentally since the times when compulsory education was first introduced in our territory, and it continues to change to this day. The essence stays the same, however. The school (like all buildings) should primarily serve its users—pupils and teachers. But would the children agree? How do they perceive the environment where they receive their education? Together with pupils of the Labyrinth Primary School, located in the former headquarters building of the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party in Brno, we tried to research the school typology and design a school of our own.

trends

annex

Hana Kabrhelová

annex

Juraj Hazucha

interview



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