In Frastanz, Austria, the Frastanz-Hofen Education Centre by Pedevilla Architects is a joint location for childcare, kindergarten, and primary school that places pedagogy, and the transition from elementary to primary school in particular, at the heart of the design.
Developed from a previously refurbished existing school building, the latest iteration includes four new wings that merge seamlessly with the existing building.
Alongside quiet peripheral zones for individual and small group learning, the central ‘marketplace’ provides a dynamic place for meeting and exchange that accommodates parents and children of all ages. Designed to provide the most consistent and targeted pedagogy possible for children between 1.5 to 10 years, recurring spaces such as the marketplace are also conceived as pedagogical nodes that allow for children and pupils to gather before being regrouped into respective education areas. And by providing simultaneously a social area for parents, a shared meeting space for students, educators and students becomes possible.
Sports rooms, workshops and music spaces, which can be used also by the local community and clubs, support the school, kindergarten, and childcare facilities.
Emphasizing the feeling of being at home, natural materials familiar to the region, such as hand-rubbed lime plaster with local aggregates, untreated fir and maple wood, foster a down-to-earth feeling and sense of the familiar.
