Pablo Horváth

The new school building in Riom extends a gymnasium that was built in 1981/82 to plans by architect Monica Brügger. The architecture of the existing multi-purpose hall uses elements from the final phase of post-war modernism in the Seventies and Eighties, and displays “raw” materials such as concrete, brick and timber. In terms of typology and volume the hall related to neighbouring stables but was not really recognisable as a representative public building. The new school building has been added to the lower gymnasium hall in the form of a tower-like end element. The new building continues the old design in a direct and consistent manner, the seams are hardly perceptible at all. The old and new buildings blend to create a picturesque overall form; the roofs and facades flow together. The new concrete walls repeat the surface structure of the boards used as formwork for the old concrete, the new windows of the school building are identical in form and proportion.

In the interior, too, new walls and rooms are woven together seamlessly, old and new walls of exposed brickwork interlock. Minimal but highly characteristic differences are revealed in the finer wooden surfaces and the sharp edges and corners of the new concrete. Architect Pablo Horváth treats the existing fabric and architectural repertoire in a skilled and sensitive way, on the one hand through consistent adaptation, on the other by giving the existing means a new effect, thus creating a new overall form out of which new meaning and content emerge. The self-assured placing and stately form of the new building give the school complex a new appearance that clearly identifies it as a public building.