2003 - renovation of the primary school - lallange - luxembourg

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Renovation, extension, metamorphosis. The building fabric from the early 1950s was out of date, far too small, in need of repair; the solution – a complete renovation and a decisive formal reworking of the old building, an extension in the form of a new classroom wing as well as a powerful canopy roof that forms a striking visual symbol.

The complex is L -shaped. A new spatial layer was placed on the longer leg of the old building containing the classrooms. W here it emerges as a building volume it is given a melon yellow coat of paint. A canopy roof, 53 metres long, 9 metres high, that almost explodes the scale was placed in front of the shorter leg of the “L”, on the main road. It rests on the new extension and is carried by seven slender columns (diameter 50 centimetres).

Beneath the canopy: arrival zone and a protected, paved area for use during school breaks. A special feature of the site: it rises along its depth. Therefore the classroom wing is two-storey on the street front, but only single-storey further behind. All the classrooms are on the upper level, so to speak. Access is from the street side by means of an external staircase. The collision of old and new is delightful. Here the melon yellow render façade of the old building, there the new building with its external skin consisting of the typical HVP exposed concrete cast in a formwork of narrow boards, and large areas of timber and glass façade. The rhythmic pattern of fixed glazing and opening timber ventilation flaps gives this façade an appearance of its own.

Old and new – a collision and an embrace. In terms of quality the situation has been radically improved. A sign, an accent in public space.

Bauherr | Client: Municipality of Esch-sur-Alzette

Wolfgang Weil

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