Fachhochschulzentrum FHS, St. Gallen, 2003—2013, Competition 1st Prize

Ambiguous building volumes

The ambivalent building consists of a plinth that takes up the urban eaves heights and street lines and a tower that appears to stand alone. Together with the towers of the Stadthaus and the Main Post Office, which are of a similar height, this creates a triad extending across the railway tracks.


The tower’s central position in the plinth building produces an outdoor courtyard that provides light for the entrance hall and the corridors of the plinth level, and an internal courtyard that becomes a three-storey library. The surrounding spatial layer can be flexibly subdivided and contains all the seminar rooms.


The building envelope binds the ambivalent building figure together and differentiates the building parts by profiling them. In a reference to the Savoy sandstone that is widely used locally prefabricated, coloured, bush-hammered or sand-blasted concrete elements produce subtle differences between the horizontal plinth building and the vertical tower.

Reference image: Candida Höfer, Stiftsbibliothek St.Gallen 2001

Address

Rosenbergstrasse 59, 9000 St. Gallen

Client

Hochbauamt Kanton St. Gallen, City Parking AG St. Gallen, Tiefbauamt Stadt St. Gallen

Commission

Fachhochschulzentrum

Procedure

Wettbewerb 2003, 1st Prize

Planning period

2003–2013

Awards

Der deutsche Lichtdesign-Preis 2014 (Education buildings)

best architects 14, in gold

Prixforix 2013, 2. Prize (shared)

Photography

Walter Mair, Georg Aerni image 4+7, Katalin Deer image 8

Team

Sabine Annen, Daniel Gardi, Marco Fitze, Lorenzo Giuliani, Tobias Greiner, Bianca Hohl, Christian Hönger, Monique Jüttner, Prisca Lieberherr, Patrick Peter, Martin Puppel, Marcel Santer, Christian Senn, Andrea Stehlin, Regula Steinmann, Samuel Sutter, Daniel Vega, Alexandra Weis, Sigrid Wittl, Martina Wäckerlin