Extension of Higher Technical College in Bregenz, Austria

Distinguished outwardly by a black concrete plinth zone surmounted by a skin of white metal louvres over the glazing to the upper floors, the extension is wrapped round the existing L-shape structure. The open north-east courtyard is defined on one side by a two-storey workshop building in black exposed concrete and on the opposite side by a concrete slab extending up the face of the existing tract. Behind this slab is a new escape staircase. The closed south-west courtyard has a quite different character. It is dominated by a bold grid of yellow precast concrete elements set in front of the plane of the glass. A secondary structure is created by the subdivision of the grid with timber frames into areas of glazing of different sizes.