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ÖFFENTLICHE BAUTEN • PUBLIC BUILDINGS INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

Röhrliberg II: Neue Bibliothek im Zeitgeist der 1970er-Jahre • Röhrliberg II: new library in the spirit of the 1970s

Röhrliberg I: Die durch zwei Anbauten vergrößerten Lerncluster werden über bestehende Treppenhäuser erschlossen. • Röhrliberg I: the learning clusters, enlarged by two extensions, are accessed via existing staircases.

D are more democracy — Willy Brandt’s guiding principle is today emblematic of the which mainly provides classrooms and break rooms. The L-shaped low-rise building
spirit of optimism in the early 1970s. At that time, the all-encompassing approach
Röhrliberg II with auditorium, sports facilities and the old library adjoins to the west. The
of enabling a greater say for society and youth had also taken hold of the debate on edu- red brick ensemble in the undulating landscape is one of the important and identity-for-
cation and the accompanying flood of new school buildings. A multitude of new primary, ming post-war modernist buildings in the region and was classified as a heritage building
comprehensive and secondary schools with open learning spaces and democratised lay- in 2017 due to its high recognition and scientific value. Consequently, both buildings were
outs were built in German-speaking countries. Many of these formative educational buil- to be refurbished to improve building technology and energy efficiency and expanded to
dings still exist today — but most are in need of renovation. Even though the pedagogical include one group room per classroom, two new school kitchens and a new library in
concepts of those years can still be considered current for the most part, the question of keeping with the preservation status. In order to offer contemporary spaces, Baumgartner
“Preservation or new construction?” is rarely decided in favour of the existing buildings Loewe Architekten from Zurich added two six-storey extensions to the Röhrliberg I buil-
(see AIT05/2022, Theory). Poor structural condition, high refurbishment costs or the irre- ding, each with one new classroom per floor, and a complete storey on top of the third
versible incorporation of pollutants are just some of the reasons for this. In the case of floor. By adjoining the new classrooms to the existing circulation areas, it was possible
the Röhrliberg school complex in Cham, Switzerland, it was different: here, a feasibility to maintain the original sequence of rooms. The chosen position of the extensions fa-
study proved that the brick building with exposed concrete elements, completed in 1974, vours natural lighting of the break area via the existing windows. Two new group rooms
has a fundamentally sound fabric and is suitable for refurbishment to improve energy ef- are now located between the two classrooms and can be accessed directly from here as
ficiency and for the necessary extension. well as independently via the anteroom. In the low-rise building Röhrliberg II, the school
hall as the heart of the facility has been preserved in its original form. Above the wing
Structural measures in listed buildings housing the gymnasium’s changing rooms, an elongated, flat building has been construc-
ted that faces the schoolyard and accommodates the new library, which is furnished in
The original Röhrliberg school complex was designed by architect Josef Stöckli (1929- the style of the 1970s. Overall, the architects succeeded in the difficult task of sensitively
2021) from Cham. It consists of two building sections made of exposed brick and reinfor- reflecting the design vocabulary of the original architecture and consistently continuing
ced concrete and is laid out as a classical campus with a central schoolyard. To the east it throughout all the additions. In this way, a harmonious connection between the old
is the originally four-storey Röhrliberg I school building with its cluster-like structure, and the new has been created without any visible breaks. On the outside, differences in

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