Martin Walde :
Elementary School Building in Seyring

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At the time I started to cooperate with the architect's office Mrazek the project planning for the elementary school Seyring had already been finished, yet leaving enough scope for new ideas and changes in the course of the construction works. Discussions mainly centered around the two entrances to the building which were separated by a wall of eight meters in height. The soft curve of the wall does not only give the complete front part of the building its characteristic shape but also a certain pep. It is repeated inside in the form of a disc which is perforated several times. The basic idea was to perforate the disc at the passage between outside and inside and to fill it with soft material. My basic intention was to weaken and change the authority of the wall, thus I decided to take the - as it first seemed - illogical step of making the wall disc even more massive by extending it for a few meters to the outside. Curvy lines and stripes softly twisted out of the horizontal add a certain element of motion to the vertical massiveness of the disc. The green lines and stripes are carried out in a Sgrafito technique. The soft spot in the architecture of the building is sort of a sensitive centre which reacts to any kind of touch. When the spot is touched the movement caused by this may also be seen at the other side. Despite the relative high stability of the material the "bubble" constitutes a rather sensitive spot - and due to the fact that it tries to remain able to communicate at as many levels as possible also a vulnerable one.
(Martin Walde)

Architect: Ernst Mrazek