Solid and Void Relation

project American International School of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
architectural office SANGRAD + AVP, FLANSBURGH ARCHITECTS

 

The American International School in Zagreb is located within an educational complex envisaged for three buildings — besides the built school, there is also a plan to build a Croatian primary school and kindergarten — and the school project and the complex as a whole were awarded first prize at the architectural and urban planning competition held in 2015. The plot is marked with a flat, partially wrinkled and sunken surface, with respect to the perimeter roads, as well as a built surrounding urban structure. Along with the existing high greenery, the plot is bordered by stretches of ten-storey multi-dwelling buildings. 

 

The intended approach to the urban disposition, to the relationship between the full and the empty within the given space, is linear, separated by zones, regularly rhythmicized and relying upon the planned matrix of Novi Zagreb. The composition is made of a linear stretch of compact orthogonal buildings along the eastern margin of the plot. The houses hold the same direction and strict height relationship. The American School forms the northeast corner, the Croatian primary school the southeast, while the kindergarten is a neutral and low structure in the middle. In the dialogue of the shape and structure, the facilities are of the same denominator — they build the space around the inner courtyards and emphasize the intimacy, that is, the security of the introversion.