Broye Inter-Cantonal Secondary School
The secondary school is situated on a slightly elevated location on the outskirts of Payerne, where the extensive plain merges with the undulating hills. Due to the complexity of the different functions and interior organisation, the school complex is like a separate city district with a diverse urban life. The extensive spatial programme is accommodated in a bar form that is folded and perforated several times. This subtly breaks the extension of the large volume. It remains an autonomous building and supports the semantic character of the institution. The folds follow building regulations, creating tailored references to its context. The bar form surrounds an elongated courtyard that opens towards the landscape park.
The unexpected access with entrances in the courtyard provides the necessary introversion for the school, which is supported by a closed exterior form. In this way it was possible to precisely integrate the school complex into the slope with an expansive gesture, giving the location a new identity and the institution a self-confident expression.
From a typological perspective, the school can be regarded as something between a two-winged ribbon development and a block quad. Its folding, perforations and views are however more the result of a pragmatic approach that reacts to practical requirements of accommodating the spatial programme. The building includes over 70 classrooms, various group and staff rooms, administration, a library, multipurpose rooms, an assembly hall, a canteen and a triple sports hall. The exterior appearance does not immediately reveal its multi-layered character. The concept follows a functional and spatial division into four zones, each with an entrance and a foyer. The upper ground floor on the courtyard level assumes more public tasks, while the lower ground floor and the two upper floors accommodate the classrooms. The folded bar is concluded by the multi-storey assembly hall and triple sports hall.
The backbone of the facility is formed by an almost 300 metre long corridor that is flanked on both sides by classrooms. Recreation areas form spatial caesurae with views out to the surroundings and onto the courtyard. The windows have the effect of constantly changing images and enhance orientation within the building.
The earthy ochre-coloured façades of granulated concrete with a dark grit aggregate and the golden brown anodised frames of the precisely fitted windows give the crystalline hardness of the volumetrics an appropriate appearance. The sparsely differentiated treatment of materials and colours in the interior, which avoids any sensationalism, expresses solid durability.
