BSSOG Hartberg
Education · Hartberg, Austria · Renovation & Extension · EU-wide Competition · 2022
The School as a Micro-City
The existing school in Hartberg is organised by a strict structural grid.
Rather than treating this as a limitation, the project uses it as a framework for transformation.
The existing building is retained and carefully reorganised, while the required additional programme is placed in two lightweight timber extensions of 1,700 m² GFA each. Both follow the structural grid of the floors below, allowing the school to grow vertically rather than consume more land.
The result is not a new building replacing an old one, but a different school emerging from what was already there.
Inside, classrooms, workspaces and common areas are reorganised so that all principal spaces receive natural light and ventilation. The existing structure becomes the basis for a more open and flexible learning environment, with spaces that can change character throughout the day.
Micro Forests
Four small courtyards are planted as micro forests.
They bring vegetation, shade and their own microclimate into the depth of the building, turning residual light wells into small interior landscapes.
The two larger atria are given different identities.
To the north, a quiet reading garden extends the library with a covered terrace and places to sit. To the south, the atrium becomes more urban: an extension of the dining and multipurpose areas, with raised platforms for sitting, lying down, meeting and informal events.
Not every schoolyard has to be outside.
A Social Centre
At the heart of the school, the aula becomes its main communal space.
Library, media rooms and multipurpose spaces can be opened towards it, allowing the school to host larger events and to operate beyond normal teaching hours.
The school becomes less a collection of classrooms and more a small network of different places: quiet and active, formal and informal, interior and exterior.
A micro-city for learning.
More Public, Not More Building
The transformation also reaches beyond the school itself.
By removing the former caretaker’s house and reorganising a small number of parking spaces, the western edge of the site becomes a new park. Seating creates an additional place for the neighbourhood, while the enlarged entrance square can be used by students during the day and for markets, events and neighbourhood gatherings outside school hours.
A generous canopy on two slender columns marks the entrance and gives the school a clearer public address.
The project therefore adds programme without simply adding footprint.
It creates more school, but also more landscape and more public space.
Building with What Is There
The existing façade is energetically upgraded with prefabricated timber elements and ecological insulation. The new upper floors are built in timber and continue the logic of the existing structure.
Inside, natural wood, warm terrazzo floors and clay plaster create robust spaces with a quieter material atmosphere.
Photovoltaics are integrated on the roofs, while the reorganisation of the floor plan supports natural lighting, ventilation and night cooling.
The ambition is simple:
not to make the old school look new,
but to make the existing building capable of supporting a different kind of school.
