Primary School Miren

The most important for the Karst architecture from the history is the heritage of Karst villages with its unique farmhouses and their courtyards. Form of the village was constantly adapted to topography of landscape and was cleverly aligned to microclimate conditions. Houses of the villages were always strong connected to the fertile land and adopted nature such as functional gardens, grape wine espaliers and crops of trees. Beside the functional benefits of joining the houses with gardens, the Karst people also used planting for wind protection from Burja ( Bora wind ).
The extension of the Primary School Miren is designed from the reference point of the old school house from the 19^th century. A new building is an extension of the additional school rooms, multipurpose foyer and a gym hall. The design is undertaken to specific environment impact such as specific clime, geology and vegetation which are defining the context of the architectural proposal.

The bold ease with which the flat roofs of the extension building juts outwards gives the new building its own impressive inside courtyard, forcourt and promenade.
The main issue of the concept is the façade. Vertical division of the two-story building and horizontal breakdown of the structure is constructed from prefabricated Limestone concrete elements. Deep and slightly shifted façade elements provide shading protection according the sun position and interior room orientation. The structure of the façade-framing grid is filled by main and distinct panels made of glass and wooden wall systems.

Another challenge at the proposal was creating the new planning basis of the Open Classroom and multifunctional shared spaces of communication and foyer. The classrooms are conceptualized as labors that can adapt to different learning situations which allows frontal instruction, discussion, groups configuration and independent work process. Corridors and communication areas are over dimensioned for multipurpose use with natural light, sound absorption and didactic equipment for alternative learning spaces. The typology changes of construction seems to be most important in the school design in order to be able to individualize and personalize the classroom. Therefore, the interior design is simplified to most venerable qualities of local materials such as oak wood, limestone concrete and stone. Combination of colors and textures provides a complexity to stimulate and encourage pupil’s interests.