Carlos Martinez Architekten

Central identification – The new facility supplements the existing school and university building to form a campus with a central square. In addition to student accommodation and rooms for lecturers and guests, the building also houses the public restaurant and café. A new gathering area is being created here for the Fachhochschule Ost, the Buchs Sargans vocational and further training school and the Zentrum ­Präzisionsindustrie Alpenrheintal.

Conceived as a system timber construction, the soft wooden façade contrasts with the hard surfaces of the existing building. The volume is shaped as a slim structure to form a high point. It is built on a two-storey base that compensates for the terrain’s elevation differences. Seating steps are used for this purpose, connecting the exterior and interior of the tower, while also overcoming the difference in the levels of the campus square and the higher schoolyard of the further training centre. The result is a collective spatial atmosphere. Teachers and students can have relaxed meetings on the seating steps.

Exciting spatial sequences are created through open spaces and galleries in the publicly used base of the building, offering intense visual relationships. The four-person residential groups are situated on the tower’s two lower levels, including communal areas. On the five floors above them, apartments and studios are arranged in a mixed order. The entrances to the ground floor are situated on the campus square. Each functional unit is given a separate address.

The new square interrupts the thoroughfare. Insular elements slow down the traffic and offer green spaces, trees and water areas to ensure a good quality of stay.