Team _ Marcela Aragüez, José Aragüez, Lihan Jin

Date _ August 2020

Location _ Steckborn, Switzerland

Typology _ Educational

Surface _ 1700m2

​

The design proposes three new buildings that are coherent yet differentiated: each new building “touches” the adjacent one and at the same time is entirely independent. Deliberately, the ensemble gives rise to an eastern and a western side of the intervention where the former has a more public character than the latter. 

​

Where they “touch,” a sizeable carving of one of the volumes at ground level allows an otherwise volumetrically connected composition to feature two large openings. These openings set a relationship of passage and views between the front area of the site (eastern side) and the yard (on the western one). Additionally, the carvings become the covered outdoor area of the lake school building and the vestibule of the multi-purpose building, respectively. Each covered space precedes the entrance to either of those buildings. In other words, the singularity of the contact point between buildings signals the presence of two key spaces within the overall scheme, each condensing covered outdoor area, building access, and a transition between the two sides of the intervention.

​