High School Crinkled Wall | Wiesflecker Architecture

A high school with a long-standing tradition within the Schillerstraße community in Kufstein, Austria, it was originally opened in 1907 and was planned by architect Willy Grad from Stuttgart. Since then it has gone through a couple of extensions and renovations that were integrated into the same style of the existing buildings to create a better environment and keep the school growing. The most recent addition was a design proposal by Wiesflecker Architecture that won them an architectural competition held in 2009 for the necessary expansion needed by the school. The elements the judges found worthy in Wiesflecker Architecture’s design was its convincing urbanistic approach to the already existing basic building structure and its special internal organization. With the original building being designated as a historic monument representing the local traditional style of the early 20^th century, the new building is set clearly apart from the existing building.

The new independent, conical-shaped structure has a generously planned entrance area that develops under the new building up to the u-formed existing building arranged around an inner courtyard. Combined with the newly designed gymnasium area in the basement, the new expansion creates an attractive spatial sequence unique to the campus without overwhelming the traditional elements the school is known for and attempts to preserve. Within the new 4080 square meter building, approximately half of the original classes offered at the school. The main distinguishing artistic element of the new extension is the south-east façade consisting of a shear wall appropriately named the “crinkled wall.” This wall hangs approximately 2.5 meters in front of the existing glass façade. The three-dimensional concrete structure was created in cooperation with the artist Karl-Heinz Klopf to resemble a sheet of crumpled paper from the roof down to the first floor. The effect of the wall makes the building appear as though half of it is missing, a block of stone that had been split, leaving all those who have seen the structure wondering where the rest of the building is and adding to the appeal of the rest of the school.