School Campus Studentská – Mnichovo Hradiště

Mnichovo Hradiště

2023, closer competition

The old school building is of high-quality, it is a distinctive unit. At the same time, however, the impressiveness of its form, consisting of narrow elongated two-aisle wings with serially ordered classrooms is closely tied to the pedagogical practice of the time of its construction. Contemporary pedagogy is different, and therefore has completely different requirements in regard to the spatial structure of the school building, its operation, layout, and thus its form. For that reason, the new school building shall not be an extension of the old one. It represents a new quality, a coherent part, an independent unit. However, it remains respectful to the character of the old school building. It does not interfere with its form in any significant way, the functionalist composition of an athlete swimming front crawl, in other words, the soaring wings emerging from the central axis, shall not be altered. Its ambition is, together with the old building, to create a single cohesive and harmonious unit, composed of two distinctive parts. The outdoor spaces, shaped by the design of buildings and outdoor areas, represent the outline of this unit. Their concept sets out to transform spaces into places. Places with their own distinct characters, functions, and poetics. Due the structured composition of the school campus, determined by the spaces into which the old school building opens, it also acquires a new quality – the spirit of contemporary open pedagogy. At the same time, the entire school building remains compact. And not only out of consideration for the undeveloped area of the complex, its landscape environment and sustainability of the building. But also for the fact it is both a friendly world of children and an society-shaping institution. And institutions tend to have a single entrance.