Rock & Sponge
Primary School in Visp, Switzerland
As a result of the urban planning analysis, we have identified two areas of the site: an “urban cluster” and a green “buffer”. “Urban cluster” consists of the existing school campus and adjacent sports and multipurpose halls. “Buffer” zone has great potential for development into a new green and ecological public space, but currently lacks clarity of use, greenery, and is filled with outbuildings.
The project provides a compact school building with minimal footprint adjacent to the existing school complex, maximizing open space for the development of a new park, a new biotope. This allows for a minimum of new, undeveloped land and maximizes the development of existing paved areas. This decision to locate the school as close as possible to the existing school buildings (while retaining needed sunlight) completes the urban composition of the historic school campus.
The new Biotope 2.0 Park, the green part of the campus, gives the park a dynamic ecosystem and contributes to the creation of a cool island. The project is a two-sided school: an “urban frontage” facing the existing schools and a “natural frontage” facing the green space. The park, which we call the “New Biotope”, is a public green space that is a place for play, a green sponge for water infiltration, a place of biodiversity and a noise buffer between the school building and the Kleegärten residential buildings. The school simultaneously separates and connects the “urban” and the “natural”.
We believe that it is essential for children's development to learn in relation to the urban and biological context and to be able to choose where they want to play and what mode they want to switch to. Ultimately, the project seeks to create a harmonious, functional and ecological educational environment, through proximity to nature and to the city, that promotes children's all-round development.
Landscape architecture: Fanny Christinaz .
Structural engineer: Giotto Messi
KOSMOS team:
Leonid Slonimsky
Artem Kitaev
Dmitry Prikhodko
Natasha Krymskaya
Boris Nemtsev
