Contemporary re-thinking of educational amenities
Surrounded by a mosaic of individual family homes with gardens, orchards and fragments of abandoned agricultural land, the new primary school becomes a strong contemporary landmark of the Montenegro capital’s Tološi neighbourhood. The building is not just a school: its positioning behind the carefully preserved trees leaves one with an impression of entering an urban forest.
A genuine integration of formal and informal learning unfolds both within the landscape design and within the inner structure: blurred “territories in-between” that transcend the traditional concept of a closed classroom:
– inside, the architects designed a prototype of an inner void: a widened version of the classic corridor, a multipurpose core, an interactive school street, intended to house spontaneous encounters among teachers and students from different grades;
– outside, the architects offered an urban solution in which most of the area is accessible to the public: the learning process continues under the treetops, in the southern park.
The compositional clarity
Urbanistically, the program is organised in two architectural structures, the school and the sports hall, and in three open-air fields: the entrance square in the north, running track and playgrounds in the south, and the parking area in the west. They all seem to float in the urban forest that extends mainly from the whole south end of the site towards the north-east.
The presence of the trees contributes greatly to the green character of the whole complex: they protect it from noise and air pollution with an impressive belt of greenery.
All these areas compose a collage of territories – from urbanised pavements to natural ambiences – inviting countless variations of events with different characters.
The school square – the entrance area – is paved with 60×30 cm concrete slabs, and on the edges there are benches. And while on a daily basis the square is a welcoming and light space for impromptu conversations in the minutes between arriving and departing, on special occasions it can also serve as a stage for various school functions, concerts, exhibitions and other forms of reaching out to the local community.
Another essential line is this urban composition is the north-south promenade and running track that flows between the school and sports hall. It is positioned strategically as a minimalist public link between the main traffic road SKOJ-a (and its bus stop) and the northern residential area. This line touches and strings together the playgrounds, park areas, side entrances to the two buildings (the secondary entrance to the school and the audience entrance to the sports hall), square and two parks.
The poetics of rational simplicity
The school design follows the traditional rule of placing the main classrooms in the southern tract, and the specialised classrooms, administration, library and community areas in the northern tract. However, the classical central corridor is widened and provides a bright space that communicates visually through different levels. Hence the typology is reversed: we have a light void embraced by lateral corridors instead of a narrow corridor. The stairs, elevators and technical / sanitary areas are located in the central part at the edges of the shorter façade: all the other rooms have direct northern or southern natural light, according to their specific content.
The sports hall can be approached in two ways: from the main (west) promenade entrance for the audience, leading to the seating area, or from the underground corridor between the school and the sports hall. The tract for changing rooms and other service rooms is four metres underground. This design decision allowed the above-ground part to be significantly smaller and more elegant than expected, standing in as a “roof lantern” through which natural light enters the interior through the structural glass façade.
The roof is covered with areas for football and basketball. The beautiful greenery of treetops embraces the area, and brings a new identity to the neighbourhood, inviting the residents to climb the southern stairs and also play there.
Sensitivity to climate change
The architects paid special attention to energy efficiency, and by locating the building behind the existing trees – each carefully preserved – the southern part of the building is protected from intense sunshine. Additionally, classrooms have brise soleils, preventing the direct intrusion of sunlight and rain, and the rooftop of the sports hall is also cantilevered. Solar collectors completely meet the need for warm water in the building. The school also has its own well, allowing for its own irrigation and eliminating of a large seasonal cost.
