Parkside Learning

The school’s design intends to link various areas of the site and programmes while preserving the existing park. Its position densifies the village junction and the existing pedestrian path that connects the care centre, gymnasium, and elementary and secondary schools.

The compactness of the layout, limited to the existing school footprint, preserves village’s central open area. This gesture also maintains the natural terrain of the site as much as possible by reducing excavations. The day-to-day structure was retained as a space for youngsters to congregate during breaks.

The built follows the contours of the site and the terrace levels respond to the directionality of the terrain. Staggering the built exposes the structure to maximum natural light and offers directly accessible learning gardens on each floor.

The proposal’s particular response to context by seamlessly merging with the terrain and surrounding buildings is further achieved through its material expression. It has a strong concrete base and a lighter timber structure that resonates with the traditional ways of building. The robust base minimises damage by dampness and the lighter structure accommodates changes during the building’s life cycle.

The design’s porosity enables the ground level to become a public area that continues into the neighbourhoods. This continuity is reflected in the learning rooms on the higher floors, which open out to learning terrace and gardens that integrate with the park.

Each cluster is conceptually and physically organised around pedagogical centres that are interconnected with one another. These connect to consolidated learning terraces that bridge the park and the learning spaces on the inside.

The central open area in the park is activated by outdoor sports facilities. It is shared by the high school, resulting in a kind of a Parkside campus. In this manner, the design tries to relate to the surrounding buildings of care centre, secondary school, learning centres and other community buildings and thus reinforces the requisite publicness at the centre of the village.


Kelholf school (Parkside Learning) | date : 2022 | location : Adligenswil, Switzerland | surface : 4.206 m2 | team : Madhusudhan Chalasani, Jesús Garrido, Bharat Kumar Thota, Vamsi Krishna, Reshma Esther Thomas, Sri Achyutha Cherukuri | client : Municipality of Adligenswil | status : competition | competition : finalist