Competition for BG/BRG/BORG Eisenstadt


On 10 April 2015, Anita Witek won BIG’s Kunst & Bau competition for the secondary school BG/BRG/BORG and hall of residence in Eisenstadt with her project entitled Circling the Square.

The judges explained their unanimous decision as follows:
“Anita Witek’s Circling the Square is based primarily on the idea of creating an atmosphere that will appeal to both young people and to adults. The use of diverse materials creates options for physical activity and seating for outdoor lessons. Looking down from the first floor of the school building, viewers see a collage made up of colours and layers that combine to form an artistic synthesis on one side of the square. The judges were impressed by the artist’s extremely thoughtful colour and material concept for the yard in front of the school, as it allows the students to experience a high-quality contemporary work of art, while also being able to use it as a recreational area.”

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Josef Danner proposes an overall concept for the square that consists of several elements: warm colours and texts on the façade, the picture of a nerve cell used as a motif on the Terraway floor surfacing, and a glass wall with sandblasted images and writing. In addition, the artist proposes creating green areas with shady trees and natural stone ensembles that provide seating and recreational areas for the students.

Jack and the Beanstalk


Didier Faustino proposes positioning a more than 6m-high “public piece of furniture” with many possible uses at a central location in the school yard. This sculpture consists of a platform and a high wall with vines and leaves made out of cast aluminium. Students and staff alike are encouraged to make it their own.

Roter Punkt auf weißem Gebäude (Red Dot on White Building)


Jakob Lena Knebl proposes covering the new wing of the school with an oversized red dot that stretches across the façade and onto the pavement of the adjacent street. This red dot marks the boundary between the education institution and the outside world, while striving to connect them and at the same time creating a new way of looking at something familiar. It acts as a placeholder for various contents and is also a highly visible feature (on Google Earth, for instance).

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Christian Mayer proposes a design that reflects on and challenges our understanding of time in a variety of ways. The fundamental motif is a Japanese zen garden. However, it gains a new level of meaning thanks to a decisive substantive modification – namely, being made of concrete instead of sand – which also makes it durable. The result is the synthesis of two opposing time philosophies.

schoolbags


The point of departure for Paul Mühlbauer’s project is the schoolbag as a symbol for school: old schoolbags, new schoolbags, dropped, or consciously set down. The greatly enlarged bags are transformed into seating objects and bus shelters at the front of the square. They are colourful bags, old and new bags. Images of heaps of schoolbags are affixed to the façade. In the near future, these kinds of schoolbags will be nothing more than memorabilia.

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Doris Prenn and Michael Atteneder propose merging the project space and public space. The fundamental form of the design is the zebra crossing: A wide pedestrian crossing begins on the street, dissolves as the square slopes upward and then features various curved, raised elements made of white concrete, creating space for green areas, seating, exercise areas and an outdoor classroom. The arrangement of these areas is not fixed and can be developed and modulated together with the users.