New school Chýně

An adaptive place for all. The main aim of the project is to go beyond the mere construction of a school. This is more than a project of architecture; it is a project of urbanism. The village needs a central place that invites the inhabitants together; this center should have some legitimacy with the current plan of the village and should anticipate future extensions. It is at the same time structuring the existing and the future of the village. It provides the inhabitants with the main square for the 50 coming years, hopefully, more. It is to be the geographical, social, and symbolic heart of the village. It provides a centrality and a place to meet. The plaza is built around the school. Symbol of education and emancipation, it is a powerful center of an urban and peri-urban area. It places people and the community at the heart of the village. Around the center are placed different programs linked to health, fitness, sport, food (cantina), and entertainment (auditorium).

The project convinces the Jury in all competition criteria: in its overall urban setting, its architectural quality, its functional and programmatic clarity, and smartness as well as in its economic use of surface area and thoughtful architectural setting regarding ecological issues. The building complex is well connected to the logical access route from the town centre via the linear Višňovka park, which is extended to a town plaza as a grand ending point. The town plaza is the public, openly accessible core of the new development, which is at once a well-programmed community centre and the front plaza to an innovative school. The communal areas such as the hall and the canteen as well as the sports facilities are located to the North and South of the new plaza, the school is located to the East, with the library in the centre of the public plaza; there are two separate entrances for both schools: the 1st stage school and the 2nd stage school. The community centre and the school can work in synergy as well as separate. The school is outstanding in its relationship of indoor and outdoor space: right after both school entrances, there is an immediate connection to a courtyard, which can be used as an outdoor learning space. The 2nd Stage school is directed to the sports field in the East, while the 1st Stage school has a more intimate but spacious garden to the South, yet all outdoor spaces are connected. The cluster organization allows for different educational systems and good orientation in the schools. Overall the scale of the proposal, its sensitivity to the needs of the town, as well as the location of the possible addition of the swimming pool will enrich the social and school life in Chýně.

The new school Chýně is a school of the 21st century - a place of a new culture of education. Our school does not babysit or lecture its pupils - on the contrary, it encourages them to discover the world individually, to learn social responsibility, the willingness to help others and to develop their sense of relationships in society. The school offers spaces for diverse forms of learning, but it is also a place to experience other spheres of life. Architecture actively enters into the pupil-teacher-parent relationship and thus becomes a full part of it.

The proposal with a clear urban concept that follows the Višňovka park uses well the differences in terrain height for the internal organization of the school. The main functions of the school are gathered in pavilions connected to the central foyer with hall and school canteen. The foyer as a communal and social heart of the school is a distinctive quality of the proposal and has a great potential to become the centre of successful community life. The same applies to the library that enriches the entrance area of the school. The pavilions generate and define semi-public outdoor spaces with the potential to connect the interior school well with the exterior in order to host various outdoor activities. The amphitheater is one of the best-solved elements related to the canteen and hall. The atriums in North-West and South-East remain so far in scheme awaiting further elaboration. The classroom pavilions are based on a corridor scheme which in the case of the second grade offers little opportunities to be used for creating social contacts and spending free time during breaks. In several cases, these corridors are not ended with satisfaction. The main staircase of the second grade does not convincingly follow the entrance of the school. The orientation of the classrooms to the South-East and South-West is slightly unfortunate and will require added shading. The section of the school management and teachers is mixed with the second grade and too isolated. The location of the preparatory class is too deep in the disposition. The jury recommends reconsidering the incorporation of the outdoor fire escape staircase into the volume of the building, which will allow better use of the adjacent garden. The presented architectural solution is less convincing than a well-structured hierarchy of functions and connections of the interior and does not correspond to the concept of wooden structure that is declared in the text report. Parking, however much needed, envelopes the school and isolates it from the surroundings. Effective traffic solution for the morning hours is lacking (e.g. K+R). The narrow park following Višňovka in front of the entrance façade of the school lacks convincing expression in regard to the pathways and importance of the space.

The developing village of Chýně currently lacks its social center of gravity, landmarks, and quality public places. A plot of land in the as yet undefined space of the future central part of the village calls for a representative public investment based on rationality, not on costly architectural display. We propose a set of outdoor spaces dedicated to all people, including a generous "plaza" defined by the schoolhouse. However, the house does not become a servant of this public space but a partner. They complement each other and form an urban community unit that accentuates the importance of place compared to the scattered surrounding buildings. The new public space adjacent to Višňovka will connect the school socially with the city and thus avoid the creation of a closed institution. Višňovka, which has the character of a road, will get its second dignified peak as an opposition to the cemetery. Our proposal answers how to create a pleasant educational and public environment, taking into account not only the architectural and urban aspects but also the economic and ecological ones.

A very strong and simple concept is well and clearly worked out into a quality proposal. The basis of the solution lies within the natural prolongation of the promenade into the newly design centre of activities – a square defined by a rational low volume of the building. The proposal works well with the terrain. The new form takes in regards of its surrounding quite defined shape; nevertheless, it does not dominate the area and acts there with subtlety. The proposal is both functions are merged naturally. However, the quite harsh separation of the area as clearly outdoor or indoor space without any buffer zones makes for a slightly user-unfriendly environment. The schematic solution of the quite large area of the square seems problematic; it would be welcome to have it treated more into detail and create smaller better controllable and usable spaces. The proposed solution, according to the jury, puts too much responsibility for managing the space on the inhabitants of Chýně. The functional link between the south wing hosting the classrooms of the first stage and the public space seems too direct and in conflict – a buffer zone creating a more intimate area for the children to learn and use the outdoor space freely is missing. The jury recommends reconsidering the strictness of the space, but is also of the opinion that these shortages can be solved without disrupting the otherwise clear concept. A great deficit in the proposal lies in the location of the swimming pool below the sports field. The phasing in this case would be impossible without compromises. The final location of the sports field on the roof of the swimming pool is questionable, feels enclosed, and subconsciously excludes the public. This solution brings possible limitations and complications and does not quite correspond to the brief. The traffic solution is lacking as well. The architecture is sober with contemporary expression, at some points may be too austere. It respects the place and is well in scale with its volume. The sculptural form however negatively affects the financial costs; the proposal has the most disadvantageous floor area to façade area ratio among the prize-winning projects. The functional links within the building are well solved, even though apart from the south wing-public space collision there is also the issue with the disposition of the first stage classrooms: their width to depth ratio is unfavorable. The corridor scheme of the first floor is too utilitarian and lacks the qualities that are to be found on the ground floor. From the acoustics and organization point of view, the location of the big gymnasium is questionable. Also, the big gymnasium is actually rather small in regards to the competition brief. The preparatory classes are not that easy to access, it would be more user-friendly if they were located more towards the edge of the public space.

The project of the new school in Chýně thus takes on a great responsibility not only on an architectural or territorial scale but above all as an urban healing medium that not only enriches the village itself with its presence but also clearly defines the steps of its development and perhaps sets an example for other, equally ill, settlements.

The jury awarded this proposal with an honorable mention for the innovative approach of the authors toward the spatial and functional layout of the school building. The proposal works with the element of the “inner school landscape” as a flowing space for meeting, playing, and alternative forms of education. At the same time, enough attention was put into the classic classrooms as to a basic typological unit of the school. Their integrated distribution at the Northern façade ensures a constant level of lighting during the whole day. The jury appreciates the courage of the authors to investigate an alternative typology by the design of the competition proposal even at the expense of greater spatial demands directly generating greater financial costs of such a project.

Adjacent to the greenbelt along the public road on the west side is a proposed school building complex with a public plaza with a community center function with a library, multi-purpose room, gymnasiums, multi-purpose cafeteria space, rentable ambulatory space, and a swimming pool, and other ancillary services. The central common area is connected to the buildings with groups of three to four classrooms with east and south orientations for the first grade and west and south orientations for the second grade of the elementary school.

The jury felt positively addressed by the structurality of the proposal and by the simplicity of the concept working with the scale and searching for a suitable expression for the school in such a township as Chýně. The chosen form of the pavilion school moreover allows for a consistent application of the cluster system for the classrooms, which the jury finds generally more favourable in comparison to the conventional corridor scheme and more suitable for the modern educational methods and development of the sense of community.