New school complex on Thurgauerstrasse
The Thurgauerstrasse site is located in the dynamic development area of Leutschenbach, immediately adjacent to the established residential areas of Oerlikon, Seebach and Schwamendingen. Numerous mixed-use development and service sector buildings are replacing the commercial buildings that characterized this area up until the 1990s. This is now continuing with the Thurgauer strasse West site, which with an area of around 65,000m2 is one of the City of Zurich’s largest undeveloped land reserves. Over the next few years, a new lively mixed development with commer- cial space and around 800 affordable apartments will be created, based on 2000Watt Society* principles. At its heart will be a planned neighbourhood park as recreational space for the local population. By way of a prelude, so to speak, the first completed building is the new Thurgauer strasse school complex by Bollhalder Walser Architektur, which opened in mid August 2024.
The new school complex for around 400 pupils consists of a primary school with a cafeteria and accompanying supervision rooms, kindergartens and a dual sports hall on around 10,000m2 of floor space. There is space for 18 school classes, two kindergartens, music rooms, workshops, a library and a multipurpose room. There are also rooms for building systems, cleaning and caretaking services, as well as cloakrooms and toilet facilities. The school includes playgrounds for the primary school, separate playgrounds for the kindergartens, an all weather sports ground,
a climbing frame, along with a plant garden and outdoor facilities available to the neighbourhood outside school hours. The grass sports pitch which will be used by the school in the future will be integrated into the planned neighbourhood park.
The Lshaped, 90meterlong school building makes full use of the site’s length, engages with the busy Thurgauerstrasse and its largescale buildings, and emphasizes its own positioning relative to its surroundings. In the direction facing the quiet residential area of single-family homes and apartment buildings higher up at the rear, the building gives the impression of being low and volumetrically small scale. Together with the playgrounds and social interaction areas in the multi layered outdoor space between the school and the neighbourhood street at the rear, it forms the centrepiece of the complex. Moreover, as a narrow building type, it blends easily into the very noticeably contrasting surroundings. A second facade, 40 metres in length, forms an angular body embracing the planned neighbourhood park to the north. On the northwest facade, structural demi courtyards break the building up into smaller components. The resulting avant corps form the building’s cluster units, conveying a child friendly scale when viewed from the outside. The all weather synthetic sports ground, on the same level as the Thurgauerstrasse, with clearly defined seating levels, enhances the site’s prestige value by underscoring the school building’s importance as a public building.
On the ground floor, at playground level, are the kindergarten and its separate outdoor area, along with the cafeteria and the multipurpose room, which face the park. The library, the music rooms and the psychomotor skills development room are also located here. In the main building on the two upper storeys are the six clusters, each consisting of three classrooms, two group rooms and a structurally separate support room. In each cluster these classrooms are grouped around a common centre which serves as a social interaction zone, cloakroom and extended school space.
The group rooms with hinged doors are situated next to the adjacent clusters, and in addition horizontal access through the building is enabled via these spaces. The handicrafts/curriculum support rooms are in the section of the building facing the park. The school personnel areas and the school administration and school offices are also located there. This section has its own staircase and lift access from the ground floor. In the basement of the building there is access to the sports area with the dual sports hall and to the regeneration kitchen. Also located there are the workshops.
The school building can be accessed from Grubenackerstrasse via the playground and from Thurgauerstrasse. The latter entrance is used by children, teachers and visitors coming from the southeast. It leads via an attractive staircase to the internal "boulevard" at ground floor. All facilities can be easily accessed via this horizontal access area.
The design of the outdoor space plays an important role, as it contributes to environmental offsetting in this urban area. On the trellises along the inward facing frontal facades, there is dense ground planted vertical greening on large parts of the facades; in the demi-courtyards, cable climber systems bearing greening extend radially. The large roof—visible from every surrounding building—is also covered with extensive greening, as a fifth facade. This creates significant added value environmentally as well as aesthetically. A regular banded facade, independent of the structural design, gives the building its characteristic outward appearance, and also allows mount- ing of cost effective, standardized photovoltaic panels behind rear ventilated corrugated polycarbonate facade sheets on the parapets. This semi transparent facade is only perceptible at second glance and provides scope for multiple interpretations, as the building appears quite different depending on the time of day and light conditions. The solar facade reduces energy consumption during operation, with self consumption of approx. 50 %, based on the school complex's estimated annual consumption of approx. 340,000kWh. In accordance with City of Zurich guidelines, the energy values specified in the MinergieP-ECO standard are achieved.
