New Secondary School in Doren

A comfortable life in a small village requires not only a quality family home with a view of picturesque countryside, but also fundamental prerequisites like valuable social, cultural, and sports activities on-site, so you are not forced to travel to the nearest city for every activity. In this regard, the Vorarlberg village of Doren takes exemplary care of its thousand residents.
The original building of the secondary school in Doren dates from the mid-1970s when architect Jakob Albrecht constructed a two-story classroom wing and a sports hall around the central courtyard, ingeniously integrating it into the sloping site. With the arrival of the new millennium and a new generation of students, the building required significant reconstruction. Currently, the school is attended by 200 students aged 10 to 14. The local studio Fink Thurnher Architekten was commissioned for the reconstruction, which considered not only the strictest energy-saving requirements but also, with the help of Principal Arno Euster, implemented a new spatial concept for school buildings, where each grade occupies a separate wing. Between the individual classrooms lies the so-called "study landscape," which represents a generously conceived space with computer workstations around the perimeter and freely adjustable furniture. Teaching is conducted in a way that students receive assignments and can work on them individually at their desks or in the shared "study landscape," where they learn to work in groups. According to the school principal, the more spacious rooms also contributed to a reduction in student aggression.
The original buildings were insulated and adorned with a new façade of wooden slats. A wooden sports hall was added in the northern part of the school campus. In addition to the new spatial arrangement, efforts were also made to reduce the number of materials used, visually unify the individual structures, and connect the original buildings with newly designed ones. Wood helped enhance the overall atmosphere of the school buildings. This natural material has not only good thermal but also sound insulating properties, significantly reducing the impact of noise from the school on the surroundings. The floors are made of ash, while the windows, doors, school desks, and built-in furniture are made of fir wood. The ash floor is untreated, which is quite exceptional for school buildings in Austria and required special permission. Locals have good experiences from a nearby school by Cukrowitz.Nachbaur, where architects also used only planed wooden boards ten years ago, and the floor still serves well, as long as it is properly maintained.