Extension of an Agricultural College

The conversion of a school from the 1950s becomes a showcase project for modern school construction.

Extension of an Agricultural College

The new training centre integrates the existing school from the 1950s into a three-storey courtyard building. The timber frame structure with timber-clad exterior walls is built as a passive house.

The design for the extension of Altmünster Agricultural College is based on the regional typology of the Vierkanthof – a farm built around a central yard – and transforms the existing school from the 1950s into a three-storey courtyard building. Generous spaces create differentiated and transparent circulation zones. The open organisation of adjacent rooms allows targeted views through the building and into the landscape.

Highly-insulated timber-framed elements form the non-loadbearing outer skin of the skeleton structure. The roof is constructed with a single layer of beams, while the floor slabs consist of solid panels of stacked timber boards with a concrete topping. The building meets the requirements of ecologically sound and resource-friendly construction by extensively using local silver fir. The new training centre integrates the existing building – which is of little architectural significance – as a valuable ecological resource into a spatially convincing overall system.

  • Location
  • Altmünster / AT
  • Completion
  • 2011
  • Client
  • Landes-Immobilien GmbH, represented by the Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government, Linz, www.ligooe.at
  • Timber Construction
  • Zimmerei Kieninger GesmbH and EW-BAU GmbH, Bad Goisern, kieninger.at
  • Photography
  • Walter Ebenhofer, Steyr
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College
Extension of an Agricultural College