Schoolcampus Hollabrunn

Urban Context and Site Constraints
A detailed urban analysis reveals that the Göllersbach stream functions as a dominant natural corridor, creating a spatial rupture that restricts access from the east. Similarly, railway tracks and the adjacent UVN substation delineate the western boundary, further fragmenting the urban fabric. These infrastructural barriers impose a north-south orientation, limiting spatial coherence and preventing the emergence of a unified identity within the planning area.

Spatial Integration and Topographical Mediation
To counteract this rigid linearity, the proposal introduces a large-scale bridge spanning the Göllersbach, establishing a critical east-west linkage. This infrastructural intervention is conceived as a topographical continuum—an artificial landscape that extends from the stream promenade into the architectural massing. The terrain is gradually absorbed into the volumetric articulation of the building, dissolving the boundary between landscape and structure. This fluid transition not only enhances spatial permeability but also initiates a strategic ecological intervention, contributing to the renaturation of the Göllersbach.

A designated bicycle and pedestrian path, following the contours of the integrated topography, facilitates seamless mobility between the stream promenade and the school campus. This multimodal circulation system is articulated across two stratified levels, optimizing accessibility for non-motorized users while reinforcing the site’s connectivity to the adjacent middle school at Kornherrgasse 4.

Materiality, Structural System, and Adaptive Modularity
The architectural expression is articulated through a lightweight structural system, employing a steel skeletal framework interwoven with timber, glazing, and minimal aluminum cladding. This material strategy ensures a high degree of adaptability, enabling future expansion and reconfiguration without compromising the spatial integrity of the original design. The modular construction approach underscores the project’s commitment to sustainability and resilience, ensuring long-term functional evolution in response to shifting educational and urban paradigms.

By synthesizing infrastructural connectivity, ecological restoration, and programmatic hybridity, the proposed educational center in Hollabrunn establishes a new architectural language—one that transcends traditional typologies to create a dynamic, adaptive, and identity-defining urban landmark.

Education & Play
The designed gaming wing is a new space for interaction. Like a suspended playground, it stretches across all three floors above the atrium.

Educational play concepts and neuroscientific insights are translated into spatial design, enabling a unique spatial experience. The gaming wing is therefore also a ‘didactic space,‘ as it creates an interactive, vertical connection between levels while playfully disrupting the pragmatic order of the ‘floor level’ to make room for new connections and relationships. This gives students the opportunity to learn through play, and to encounter themselves, their classmates, and their teachers in a playful way.

The gaming wing can be used and staged individually by students and teachers. Certain areas of knowledge can also be presented and learned interactively in the form of play.