Natural park centre, elementary school, and kindergarten in St. Magdalena
Bordering the natural park “Puez-Geisler” in South Tyrol with its striking, jagged mountain ridges, the little hamlet of St. Magdalena comprises a dispersed settlement at the top of the Villnöß valley. On the location of a 1980s-era school building, planning called for both a new elementary school with kindergarten and a visitor centre for the national park. The architects designed two monolithic volumes with rock-like appearance and placed them within the impressive alpine landscape. Their tinted and manually treated exposed concrete surfaces correspond to the surrounding rocky ridges. With their precisely set openings framed by larch wood, they actually seem to be cut from stone. The two building volumes are juxtaposed at an angle and incorporate the ridgelines of the surrounding grassy hills in their design, as well as the course of the adjacent stream. At the same time, an open place between them unfolds and, thus, emphasizes the public character of the building ensemble.
