OS Dotzigen replacement new building subject rooms, Dotzigen

The project
After one year of construction, the Büetigen-Diessbach-Dotzigen Upper School Association has been handed the key. Around 100 students cook, work or make music in the new school wing. The building replaces the special wing built in 1975 on the same site. Over the past 25 years, this building had become an investment ruin due to structural damage. A new building is therefore the best solution from various points of view. The work and group rooms as well as the spacious school kitchen are oriented to the north. On the one hand, this allows a view of the nearby forest, and on the other hand, the rooms are less warm in summer. On the warmer south side, with a view of the neighboring buildings, are the access zones and the foyer.

The construction
The almost 240 m² large multipurpose room on the first floor can be divided into three separate rooms with two sliding walls. This allows maximum flexibility of use for the school building. The seven-meter-wide folding glass door at the west end of the building allows further flexibility. A concert by the school band inside the room, for example, can be watched from the stairs in front of the building.

The challenge
The almost ten-meter-wide multipurpose room is spanned by glulam beams made of beech wood. They carry the prescribed live load of 3kN (300 kg per square meter) for school buildings. Thanks to clever design and a suspended ceiling, only just under 40 centimeters of the 96-centimeter-high girders are visible.