ZRICH

Christian Kerez recalls the spirit of early modern schools at Leutschenbach, says Brendan Woods.

Above The school functions are stacked to retain as much open space as possible. Below Hannes Meyers Petersschule, Basel; Johannes Duikers Open-air School, Amsterdam; Leutschenbach structural model as gallery exhibit. Right Generous balconies provide escape routes and shading to the glazed facades; undercroft and upper-level classroom; ground, first and top-floor plans.

When I first saw the intriguing structural diagram for Leutschenbach School, recently completed on the northern edge of Zrich by Christian Kerez, it looked like a lost project by Louis Kahn from around 1957 when he was grappling with large-scale urban issues in Philadelphia. Thinking more about the diagram, it also recalled the spirit of Hannes Meyers Petersschule project of 1928 in Basel and Johannes Duikers open-air school of 1930 in Amsterdam, both from the earlier heroic period of modern architecture. To my mind there is a palpable connection with that world and with the idea of creating a new architecture to meet new needs in the Leutschenbach School. Kerez is an architect whose work manifests an interest in structure and/or structural expression as a critical aspect of an architectonic proposition. This is evident, to some extent, in the Haus mit einem Wand (AT195) but the school at Breiten (19992003) is perhaps the closest antecedent in its exploration of a dialogue between structure, transparency and the use of fixed routes and escape staircases as a means of making a school. There is a concern with transparency, with being open to the world in a spatial sense in a manner reminiscent of Mies van der Rohes projects, and also with his love of the iconic aspects of structural expression, as in the Chicago Convention Hall project of 1954. At Leutschenbach, where the programme is stacked to leave as much of the site free as possible, the relative extravagance of the structure is countered by the compact volume of the building. This economy results from

making the stairs part of the central communal teaching space, and employing the 2.5 metre external balconies as an alternative means of escape as well as a brise soleil. On the fourth floor the two separate stairs for the two education levels meet in the single large foyer which is surrounded by common facilities such as the auditorium and library. The overall footprint derives from the dimensions necessary for the gym hall, together with a storage zone along one side. The gym crowns the building and achieves a sense of elation, floating above the immediate site, with views of the mountains that frame Zrich. This is a training hall (used by the national volleyball team) and doesnt accommodate spectators. The trussed girders that surround the three-level classroom zone are suspended from eight supports on the fourth floor. These supports are positioned at the ends of trussed girders that pass right through the building, two longitudinal and two transverse, one above the other. The trussed girders enclosing the gym are supported on the two upper transverse trussed girders. The structure is not fully symmetrical, as the roof section shows, because the library and auditorium demanded different floor areas. The trussed girders were monitored continuously during construction to enable the deformation of the building to be reliably predicted when it was time to order the glazed walls. Lighting and passive cooling are integrated into the profiled in-situ concrete slabs. A special mix using recycled concrete with expanded clay granules allowed a reduction in water content which in turn reduced the overall

5. Obergeschoss 1:200

1. Obergeschoss 1:200

Erdgeschoss 1:200

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weight of the structure. The gymnasium can be passively cooled at night via motorised flaps to help maintain an optimum daytime temperature. The air handling plant is split between the basement and roof space, the reduced distances resulting in smaller ventilation ducts than would otherwise be necessary. The heated floor slabs are fed from a district heating system powered by a waste incineration plant. The walls to the 3.5 metre high classrooms are triple-skin Profilit panels with doors mounted in steel frames. The generous ethereal pale-green space of the upper floors seems curiously at odds
Structural analysis by Bob Barton Manipulation of structure is a fundamental part of Christian Kerezs work. He displaces and shifts it, in the manner of someone tipping a bowl of soup to make it deeper at one side; his House with One Wall (AT195) is the clearest example. The problem with structure is that, unlike soup, when you displace it you end up needing more of it. One could take the moral high ground and proclaim that this sort of activity is decadent and wasteful. However, there are few, if any, examples of mathematically optimised structures in architecture. Leutschenbach School has very pronounced engineering, yet the structure is very difcult to read, and what at rst appears to be a rational collection of ingenious transfer systems is on closer examination not quite what it seems. To explain what is going on, from the ground up, first we have six pairs of columns that hold up the entire structure. These columns support two internal trusses that span the length of the building, and which in turn
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with the entrance level, where the section is compressed in height and the six steel tripods carrying the entire weight of the building make it feel squashed. The compression creates a scale more sympathetic to the younger students who inhabit this level. Perhaps it also prepares them for an experience that culiminates in a sublime sense of being suspended in space, floating above the world they are learning more about day by day. In this repsect and others, Leutschenbach suggests a model for urban schools in a future of increased inner-city densities.
Brendan Woods is an architect in private practice; he teaches at the University of Kent.

support four more trusses spanning around the perimeter. So we now have six trusses, each three storeys high, supporting the entire building off the six ground-oor columns. Continuing upwards we nd another four trusses sitting on top of the previous six. And nally on top of this we have the gymnasium space bounded by four more full-height

trusses that support the roof. Along with the intricate oor slabs, this building oozes structure. Other than the column-free ground oor facade, there is little structural advantage to much of this work. More prosaic engineering solutions could have created the same spaces, and even the trusses themselves are an inefcient shape for these sorts of

loads. This is a structure whose primary function is to dene space and volume; a composition using trusses. In some of Kerezs other work, the apparent absence of structure denes the architectural idea. Here we have the complete opposite.
Bob Barton is principal of Barton Engineers. Below Reflected ceiling plans.

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Christian Kerez writes Apart from classrooms, Leutschenbach School comprises a gymnastic and multipurpose hall, a library and cafe. Typically these functions would be placed next to each other and connected on an organisational level. Not unlike a high-rise, Leutschenbach stacks the elements and achieves a single volume with a small footprint. The result of this vertical organisation is a surrounding park, which can be used to its full extent by the school and neighbouring communities. All levels are composed as spatial structural steel frameworks. The loca-

tion of the bracing differs from one level to the other, allowing various layouts of the interior spaces and offering specific relationships to the exterior. The various sections become differentiations within a uniform system in which overarching relationships occur, such as between the communal areas on the ground floor and those on the fourth. The ground level is shallow in height and relates to the playground. Here the school acts like a giant roof, hovering over the communal eating and play areas, with more intimate spaces consolidated within a core.

All classrooms are located on the second, third and fourth levels. A generous hallway, with access to all classrooms, acts as an additional teaching place. Wide, single flights of stairs lead from one hallway to the next. A system of opposite-running stairs divides juniors from seniors, yet both runs meet in a collective central hall on the fifth floor. Immediate access to the library and multipurpose hall, with views over the park, complete this level. The top floor terminates with the gym, where the entire footprint of the project is comprehensible.

Project team Architect: Christian Kerez; design team: Christian Kerez, Christian Scheidegger, Andrea Casiraghi, Lucas Camponovo, Ueli Degen, Michael Eidenbenz, Steffen Lemmerzahl, Andreas Skambas, Moritz Agn, Mathias Baer, Ute Burdelski, David Gianinazzi, Romina Grillo, Christian Hahn, Eva Herren, Kaori Hirasawa, Raphael Jans, Louise Lemoine, Dirk Massute, Fabien Schwartz, Eva Sommerin, Fumiko Takahama, Dominique Wehrli, Christoph Wiedemeyer, Tetsuo Yamaji; competition team: Andreas Bchli, Silvio Ammann, Steffen Lemmerzahl, Florian Sauter, Selina Walder; landscape: 4d; structural engineer: Dr Schwartz Consulting with DSP; construction manager: BGS; facade: GKP Fassadentechnik; h&v: Waldhauser Haustechnik; lighting engineer: Amstein & Walthert; acoustics: Martin Lienhard; services engineer: BAKUS; client: Amt fr Hochbauten der Stadt Zrich; photos: Dario Pfammatter.

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