The complex of the Trogen Cantonal School, which has grown steadily since 1804, stretches 200 meters along the road into Töbeli. Buildings from a wide variety of eras and styles stand side by side. Here, it is not overarching geometric relationships that structure the building volumes, but rather the topography. It serves as a natural organizing system in which each building has found its orientation based on the local slope. Some are slightly rotated away from their neighbors’ axes, creating interstitial spaces and views. A delicate balance exists in which building types that are essentially independent complement one another functionally. They are held together by similarities in scale, spacing, and their relationship to the topography. We address the increased space requirements of the cantonal school with two explicitly independent interventions. The required 2,300 m² of usable floor area is divided and forms a bracket around the school grounds. The ensemble is subtly expanded outward without losing its compactness and experiential density. No “second-row” buildings are created; instead, there are deliberate interconnections with the landscape.

The eight buildings of the Trogen Cantonal School host the various classrooms and functional spaces for today’s school system. While the buildings possess clear architectural identities, they are perceived operationally as a single organism in which the street plays an integral and connecting role. Everything is distributed yet close at hand. Thus, the spatial program for the next construction phase described in the competition does not read like a standalone new building, but rather like a palette of additions and extensions to the existing structure. The school is to become more diverse and flexible so that future revisions of the school system will also find favorable spatial conditions. By dividing the new spaces across two related yet distinct structures, the unity of the conglomerate site is further strengthened. Like the buildings themselves, the new spaces also establish relationships with their respective neighboring structures. Networks of offerings are established, and synergies and multiple uses are promoted.

The southwestern building fits precisely into the existing topography and forms a structural backbone at the boundary with the residential zone above. Its main orientation follows the extension of Kantiweg and the slope. It develops a striking cross-sectional form composed of spatial layers that run along the edge of the slope between the Red Schoolhouse and the embankment on the southern slope. The building connects the levels down to the new Pharosplatz below and, thanks to its dual access via an external pergola and an internal hall, offers flexible programming options. The northeastern building block is oriented perpendicular to the terrain. The narrow volume unfolds along a double cascade staircase that runs both inside and outside. This allows all levels to be accessed both via the street-level entrance and via individual entrances on each floor. The expansive access zone is overlaid and complemented by various uses at several points. Thanks to the precise grading in the cross-section, the terrain requires only minor adjustments, and the building needs to be founded at only a few points. The expansive landscape can be experienced both on the rooftop plazas and in the transversely oriented interior spaces.