Wood Ensures Well-being in the Primary School Building

15.09.2016

Timber construction is also becoming increasingly important in public buildings. A current example is the new school building in Bonstetten. The Schachenmatten 4 school building is a hybrid construction with concrete ceilings and load-bearing external walls made of wood.

A few years ago, the school authorities in Bonstetten near Zurich realized that the classroom would soon no longer be sufficient for the increasing number of students. The community has grown enormously in the last 25 years, the population has practically doubled to over 5300.    

For this reason, a project competition was launched, which was won by the office of Zurich architect Peter Moor. The school building, which opened a year ago, houses rooms for the kindergarten as well as classrooms and group rooms for the primary school. In addition, there is a music room, a singing hall and in the basement, which is open to the playground on one side, including handicraft, block time and therapy rooms.    

According to the school president of Bonstetten, the result is a building "which, thanks to its open design, leaves a lot of educational scope and covers the entire classroom required with a large multi-purpose hall and various additional rooms."   

Load-bearing Wooden Walls

The project Soziotop by architect Peter Moor is a hybrid construction of wood and concrete: The ceilings are made of concrete, the outer walls of wood. The special feature of the new school building in Bonstetten: The timber construction was used for load-bearing purposes. Advantage: Both the thermal insulation and the supporting structure can be solved with very narrow external walls, says engineer Stefan Rüegg of Timbatec.    

Timbatec was involved in the Bonstetten school since the preliminary project. The timber construction engineers were responsible for the construction and statics of the timber construction and took over the detailed planning and fire protection in the field of timber construction.   

Pleasant Atmosphere, Short Construction Time

Architect Peter Moor chose the solution of a hybrid building, as wood in combination with exposed concrete would give an architecturally high-quality appearance. For the architect, wood also has the advantage that it creates a pleasant atmosphere in the classrooms for the pupils. Wood also allows a dry construction and short construction time.