To find a way to retain the existing qualities of the generous outdoor garden space, whilst using the existing school buildings to create a quality space that enhances the whole site. We see the commissioning of a new hall as an opportunity with the potential to use such a large investment to build more than just one sports building. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive campus where the new building will become a natural part of the whole organism, bringing unprecedented quality for spending time outdoors and indoors, during and after school and for all visitors, not only to sporting events.
Currently, the school grounds consist of several pavilions, which are connected by a system of corridors. This arrangement creates places and spaces that do not communicate with each other and do not define the natural hierarchy that is necessary for such an important institution. Moreover, the pavilion urbanism, which is anchored in the garden, does not sufficiently exploit the potential of a high-quality green space. The garden has minimal contact with the buildings and is a distraction from all the action in the school. Instead of building on a green field in the garden, we propose a house that grows organically into the overall structure of the school grounds. Instead of another pavilion with a local quality, we create an organism of interacting spaces that changes the overall image of the school. Instead of neutral materials and colours, we emphasize the local and use details to materialize Wallachian ornaments. By combining these principles, we create a unique space, hidden at first sight between the buildings. The architecture of the house, set in a pavilion urbanism, is deliberately free from formal complexities. The variety of outdoor spaces is determined by the existing composition of the buildings, which we work with and develop its qualities into a varied world of atriums, gardens and terraces.
