Planning: Gerhard Gruber, Roland Gnaiger
Planning colleague: Stefan Mayerhofer
Builder-owner: Municipality of Sulzberg
Statics: Ruthardt & Gasser

Start of planning: 1997
End of planning: 1998
Start of construction: 1998
Completion: 1998

Sulzberg Thal, a small village in the municipality of Sulzberg, lies close to the German border. The village was threatened with migration due to its closeness to the border and its remote location. In recent years exemplary local initiatives have not only led to a policy of containment but also to revitalisation. The community association fostered the extension of the schoolhouse and the maintenance of local suppliers, and thus showed that private initiatives can have great effect, especially in such situations. The Gasthaus Krone as well as the grocery store and the village hall are all the property of the private initiative to which most of the inhabitants belong.

Rebuilding and extension of Thal Elementary School

Arch. Gerhard Gruber, Roland Gnaiger, year of construction 1998

The basis for starting the school project was the old schoolhouse from 1936 and an extension of poorer quality that was added in 1980. The design was to be integrated into the extension with the least possible need for space, and thus create additional space for a gymnasium and a kindergarten.

The two extensions were merged into one and placed in a severe form next to the schoolhouse. A basic idea within the spatial conception was to make tangible the little correlations of a two-class village school. There are no hermetic rooms, the entire school is seen as a classroom and used in a multiplicity of ways. As in the old schoolhouse (but also in the nearby village inn), only simple, natural materials were used to prevent departure from the available material in the new part of the building. The main source of raw material was the silver fir, which grows in the near vicinity.

On advance notification