The first school building in Mettmenstetten was built in the nineteenth century outside the village, in the middle between what are, strictly speaking, two local settlement cores. This contradiction between «outside» and «in the middle» continues to mark the site today.
The expansion of the school complex reinforces it as a public nucleus and condenses it, albeit without becoming the heart of the village. Instead it preserves the character of a park-like open space that meshes the two parts of the village finely together and sews up the frayed fringes of the settlement. The main orientation is determined by the paths between the two settlement cores and the hedges and groups of trees that accompany them. Elongated buildings, set parallel to each other with characteristic cross sections and distinctive roof silhouettes, condense the existing structure, allowing an open learning campus to emerge, accessible from all sides in park-like surroundings. In the process, the open spaces assume various roles: the playground for the younger children is situated close to the old alpine dairy and the existing kindergarten; the playground for older children in front of the school buildings; and the ball-sports yard and the event area, again for the older children, in front of the gym. The old dairy, a facility that was already shared by both sides of the village, is converted into a library and is integrated into the complex by realigning it by means of a new and spacious veranda. The new buildings are designed as houses within the park. They are inspired by post-1945 pavilion schools – for instance those by Arne Jacobsen, Hans Scharoun or Claude Paillard – that sought a close fusion between light, air and nature in order to create an open learning environment. Facing outdoors, open, columned hallways act as a mediating layer, while indoors are expressive sets of stairs – both of them elements that forge a link to the existing school building from the 1980s.
