Client: Regional cooperative Zurich-Schaffhausen

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Date: 2023

Type: Education, Sport

Area: 4391m2

Budget: CHF 29 million

AZPML

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Ivaylo Nachev, George Foundos

Walter Bieler AG

Walter Bieler, Enrico Fromm

DGJ Landscape

Daniel Jauslin, Bas Koppers

Our project for Phase 2 of the Brunnenhof School Complex aims to solve the requested program within the rather limited spatial constraints of the site. Our proposal for the replacement new building of the Brunnenhof School Complex is to build a physical structure that:

-Provides optimal conditions for the various programs to maximize public accessibility and connectivity with the new Phase 1 building.

-Creates a building with a modern, open character reminiscent of Max Bill’s architectural approach.

-Creates a building that optimizes environmental performance by providing an energy self-sufficient building with a combination of solar panels and geothermal energy use. The building will be built with wood and low-carbon concrete to reduce CO2 emissions and embodied energy consumption.

Programmatic organization and volumetry

Our first decision was to place the two required sports halls on the ground in a 33.6 x 30.45m rectangle that fits into the building plot, with the north-west side running parallel to Hofwiesenstrasse. The advantage of placing the two sports halls on the same level is that they can be used together as one larger space that can accommodate several events of a very large scale.

Given the accesses to the park drive on the east side of the complex, which must be reached from Hofwiesenstrasse if the two halls have to be as close to ground level as possible, the position of the sports hall is predetermined. The sports halls on the existing basement level of -3m80, with their height, leave no room for any other uses of the ground floors, apart from the entrance and outdoor sports field. Therefore, we placed the school program above the double hall at the same height as the first floor of the main building at +4.35m. Given the scale of the equipment rooms required, which must be at the same level as the sports fields, we decided to place these below the open all-weather field, which will be located on the west side of the new building.

Because there is insufficient land for an additional all-weather sports field on the ground, we placed the remaining all-weather fields on the adjacent floor level of +9m10, which also corresponds to the roof level of the building to be demolished. The sports program of the new building will be easily accessible from Hofwiesenstrasse, both for the student body and for the external clubs and other sports events. A public roof access connecting the roof areas to the ground can also serve as an emergency staircase. An additional basement below the sports field, at level -7m30, will contain the changing rooms and storage of sports equipment, as well as all mechanical rooms in the building.