A School as a Living Space

architects Spado Architects, halm.kaschnig.wührer architekten
project School Complex St. Veit and der Glan, Carinthia, Austria
written by Anna Baar

 

The influence of architecture and space on well-being is undisputed. In addition to aesthetic pleasure and comfort, its positive impact on the intensity and quality of social interaction has become increasingly important today. A tendency to which modern school construction, in particular, owes significant impulses, and an increasing number of special projects. The focus is not only on shapeliness and functionality, but also on the persuasiveness in terms of living and creative space. That new dimension refers to new educational culture. It liberates itself from fetters and constraints, and creates distinctive building equivalents in accordance with a new way of thinking and new worldviews. Among the most recent examples of such exceptional contemporary working and learning environments is the school complex (Bundesschulzentrum) in the Austrian town of St. Veit an der Glan, reconstructed and extended in 2011/12. The project entity, spado architects (Harald Weber, Hannes Schienegger), and halm.kaschnig.wührer Architekten (Christian Halm, Peter Kaschnig, Rainer Wührer), pulled off a real masterpiece here – a school of comfort, a prime example of spatial economy, so to speak, at all levels.