Floor plan

Floor plan of school extension

In addition to a large canteen, which is at the heart of the extension, the new building comprises auxiliary rooms, a teaching complex with three classrooms and a multi-purpose room. The floor plan follows the topology of the site, with the canteen at the centre of the school yard, connecting the existing and the new building. To the north, we have the new classroom block with its curved façade.

Choice of material & sustainability

School corridor

The supporting structure of the timber frame and roof construction is made in BauBuche, whereby the exposed, tightly arranged posts and beams provide for an attractive interior. Apart from BauBuche, the dominating materials are concrete and rubber.

For this project, the municipal council wanted to use sustainable construction materials. That is why all main support and façade elements of the new extension are made in timber or wood-based materials.

The planted roof emphasises the green thinking behind the construction project.

Façade design & wall construction

Wall construction with rainscreen cladding

The façade reflects the arrangement of the interior BauBuche posts. Vertical clap board elements of various size are mounted between cladding profiles made in fir. The façade thus consists again mainly of timber and wood-based materials. With its segmented structure and protruding, rib-like elements, it has an organic look where light and shade create interesting effects.

Façade

Timber frame elements are mounted between the BauBuche post and beam construction. To eliminate thermal bridges, the entire wall structure is packed in 80 mm wood fibre insulation boards.

Section of wall connection of roof supporting structure

Roof supporting structure

Ceiling of canteen

The proprietors wanted to make sure that the new building could be easily transformed, in line with changing needs. For financial reasons, the initial idea of a free-spanning framework had to be dropped and was replaced with a fan-shaped roof structure consisting of single-span beams and posts.

The building however maintained the character of a large hall, emphasised by the materials used in the roof construction. For structural strength and aesthetic reasons, the initial plan to use spruce glulam was quickly dropped in favour of BauBuche.

The BauBuche veneer structure is visible from inside the canteen, with the pattern extending naturally from the narrow sides of the posts along the exposed bottom side of the girders. As this was not achievable with a conventional BauBuche construction, the architects designed a supporting structure made of screwed BauBuche S boards where the veneer structure is exposed at the bottom of the beams. The fasteners were not concealed but used as a design feature, with black bolts set off against the light-coloured beech.

The main girders above the canteen span approx. 17 m, with spans of around 11 m elsewhere in the building. Secondary beams are only found in the canteen roof, where they are arranged diagonally between the main beams, providing additional support.

Ventilation duct behind acoustic ceiling panel