Page 83 - AIT0521_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Bonnard Wœffray, CH-Monthey
Bauherr • Client Kanton Wallis SIP
Standort • Location Rue de la Monderèche 5, CH-Sierre
Nutzfläche • Floor space 11.200 m 2
Fotos • Photos Roland Halbe, Stuttgart
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 134

ÉCOLE DE COMMERCE

IN SIERRE

With the introduction of various technical and vocatio-
nal baccalaureates at the ECCG Sierre, the number of
young people increased rapidly. Pupils and students of
the small town now make up 12 per cent of the total po-
pulation of 17,000. The new building by Swiss architects
Bonnard Wœffray has an appeal beyond the town limits,
not least for its direct location at the railway station.

A ny refusal to take a test or exam is punished with the grade 1,”
the school regulations state. What at first sounds like a reform
pedagogical approach is simply the result of the reversed numerical
Grundriss 2. Untergeschoss • Floor plan level -2 Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Floor plan level 0 sequence in Switzerland’s educational grading system. Such misun-
derstandings are unthinkable at the École de Commerce et Culture gè-
nérale (ECCG) Sierre, even though the regional cultures within Switzer-
land certainly differ. It is precisely these differences that the commer-
cial and technical secondary school makes use of: through bilingual
tandem teaching. One German-speaking and one French-speaking
pupil work in a “team of two” for a total of 1,200 hours. Synergetic in-
terculturality. In addition, the premises of the Sierre University of Ap-
plied Sciences included in the school complex promote exchanges
between pupils and students. The architects Geneviève Bonnard and
Denis Wœffray recognised the importance that the school authorities
attached to synergism and skilfully translated this into architecture
and urban design. After the substantial upgrading of the south side of
the station – with a pedestrian crossing, a two-storey car park and a
separate bus station – the architects succeeded in crowning their
large-scale project “Complexe de la Gare Sud” with the prominent
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +1 Grundriss 4. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +4 seven-storey school building. Various colour compositions result from
the tinted glass façade and the slanted perforated metal parapets that
reflect their surroundings. This play of colours can also be experienced
inside the building, as the lecture halls arranged in a ring around the
large atrium are completely transparent. True to the motto “to see and
to be seen”. Attractive sensual red, expansive refreshing blue, ... in
the force field of colours. And yet the purist stairways clearly dominate
the central space. In pairs, the stairs extend from the ground floor to
the top gallery level, their wild arrangement breaking with the con-
ventional floor plan typology. Circulation, lounge area, meeting
point – defeatism when climbing stairs is a thing of the past here. The
journey is the reward. The seemingly abstract smooth material sur-
Schnitt • Section face brings the interaction between space and people to the fore.

AIT 5.2021 • 083