Dorf school facility

The grounds of the Dorf school facility are situated on the edge of the old village centre of Dietlikon. The two-storey new building accommodates six primary school classrooms and a new municipal library. Together with the two existing school buildings, it frames a yard that is used as a playground.
Visitors reach the entrance halls via the two-storey covered entrance area, which is formed by the broadly projecting canopy and the base. These also serve to provide distribution, with cloakrooms and common rooms, as well as access to the garden and a covered exterior area. Four primary classrooms are situated on the ground floor of the new building, with a further two on the upper level. Each unit includes two classrooms with group and material rooms, a teacher’s office and sanitary units.
The library on the upper level is accessed via the leafy square in the southern part of the grounds. The library room completely opens up along the longitudinal sides of the building, providing views of the playground and the surroundings.
The size of the new building gives it an appropriate scale for the location and its users. The use of the locally traditional building material of timber also connects the building to its surroundings. The façade, which is clad in vertical wooden slats, enables views through and into the building due to the interplay between open and closed elements, making the building seem light and transparent. A light grey, silk-glossy paint gives the timber building an abstract quality and combines it with the two other existing schools to create a unity.

Project competition in 2008, 1. prize

Construction
2011—2014