The school building La Nave, which means “the ship”, is built entirely in timber. Inside, outside and in the load-bearing structure, timber speaks for itself. The UNESCO-affiliated school’s motto is “Schule die beWEGt”. This can be interpreted both as “school that sets in motion” and “school that moves”. But since WEG is written in capitals, the meaning also becomes “school that shows the way”.
The floor plan follows the pedagogical approach. The youngest, the nursery children, are taught on the ground floor, whilst the older year groups are on the upper floors. As pupils grow older, learn more and mature as individuals, they move upwards in the building, a spatial movement that can be read symbolically as a developmental journey.
“The design of La Nave takes as its starting point a close interplay between pedagogy, spatial organisation and materials. The ambition was to create a school building that not only functions as a framework for teaching, but also actively supports learning processes,” says David Gschwend, architect at Carlos Martinez Architekten, and responsible for the design of La Nave.
A central architectural element is the open stepped seating that connects all floor levels. It functions as a meeting place, library, informal learning environment and social hub. The staircase is complemented by playful features such as a slide, as well as outdoor environments – including a roof terrace used as an open-air classroom.
Children and young people were involved early in the planning process, and their ideas had a direct impact on the design – for example in the form of the timber-built slide that connects two floors. The conscious choice to eschew plastic in favour of timber makes even this playful feature constructionally and materially comprehensible.
Experience the timber with all senses
The building is consistently designed as a timber construction project, where both structure and surface finishes are left visible. The timber can be seen, touched and experienced with all the senses.
The environment reduces stimuli, which benefits those children who need to limit impressions from
their surroundings.
Even the building’s technical solutions have been developed with a pedagogical approach. Controlled mechanical ventilation has been eschewed in favour of manual airing, where opening windows is part of everyday life and conveys a fundamental understanding of climate, energy and personal responsibility. Technical relationships are made visible and thus possible to explain and discuss.
For La Nave, the ambition was to create a building that is comprehensible to its users. Material, construction and spatial atmosphere should be readable and sensory, particularly for children.
“Timber contributes to this through its visible structure, its scent and its tactile presence. At the same time, the material carries a symbolic dimension. No piece of timber is like another – in the same way that each child is unique. This aspect permeates the entire building but is particularly evident in the shingle-clad façade, where each shingle has its own form,” says David Gschwend.
Innovative fire protection solution
The fire protection concept is unusual and was developed specifically for this project in close collaboration with local fire protection authorities. Only the load-bearing building elements placed in the vertical escape route, that is in the centrally located stairwell, are encapsulated. There, the load-bearing elements needed to meet fire protection requirements. The timber parts were therefore clad with gypsum fibreboard and then with veneered building boards, so that the desired timber aesthetic could be preserved throughout the building.
“By concentrating these constructed escape routes in the building’s central section, an open and transparent design of other areas was made possible without additional fire protection cladding of the load-bearing structure,” says David Gschwend.
The visible ribbed ceilings in teaching and social areas are thus not encapsulated. Here the structural frame is fire-protection dimensioned with consideration for the charring layer (charring zone), which means that the beams and the entire floor slab construction achieve the prescribed fire resistance period without additional cladding. This enables open, bright and interconnected spaces. The fields between the ribs have been clad with acoustic panels to achieve an optimal indoor climate and good room acoustics.
Right timber species in the right place
The building is consistently designed as a timber construction project from the ground slab upwards. The load-bearing structure consists exclusively of timber-based systems, where different timber products are combined based on their respective structural properties.
The frame is built using several different structural solutions. Walls and vertical load-bearing structures are formed with CLT, which contributes to overall stability, and edge-glued timber, which provides high load-bearing capacity in slender dimensions.
The floor slabs also contribute to the building’s stability and consist of glulam beams plus ribbed or cassette floors, complemented with limestone chips to achieve required sound insulation values.
Spruce and fir are used in the load-bearing structure, in the form of cross-laminated timber and glulam elements. Ash occurs in load-bearing beams of edge-glued timber as well as in visible interior surface finishes. White spruce has been used for interior surfaces on external walls. Larch has been used in the façade’s shingle cladding. Beech is used selectively in parts of the interior.
The combination of different timber species and timber-based building systems enables both high structural efficiency and a rich, nuanced spatial experience.
Text: Carl Johan Liljegren Photo: Carlos Martines Architekten
