status:
Two-phase International Design Competition
year:
2021
place:
St. Gallen, Switzerland
client:
Canton of St. Gallen
with:
Pascal Flammer Architekten
YO design team:
Francesca Benedetto, Carolina Sartori, Cristiana Smorto, Emilio Mossa, Paolo Vincenzo Romeo.
area:
9.500 m²
description:
The landscape project aims to reveal a miniature of the St. Gallen geographical system defined by the valley in which the town is set, surrounded by the Appenzell pre-Alpine belt, the Sitter and Goldach rivers, and the close presence of the Costanza Lake.
The goal is to unveil a subtle and complex network of new relationships between the city and its territory, imagining a topographical connection between the Rosenberg and Platztor campuses.
We propose an extension of the landscape system from the hill into our site. A physical and geological connection between the hill and its contours slipping across the area until the old city and St. Jacob Street. At the same time, we want to create a new geographical center for the city in which the landscape, characterized by the rich biodiversity of the species, will be a generator of new forms of public and social life. The new campus site will assume the role of the garden of knowledge, physical and mental well-being, and a vital ecological system at the scale of the town.
Our project aims to let the landscape expand from the hills into our site, creating a new ecological and public space that connects the old campus to the existing one and the old city and builds new connections with the areas of future urban interventions. The campus will be the new central park of the city in which people and nature will find new forms of coexistence.
The project depicts three main landscape scenarios able to offer multiple experiences to the students and the users, as well as richness and variety in terms of planting and materials strategy. These three main scenarios are the Hill Garden, the Open Piazza, and the Conifers Square, connected to the city and the building following three different urban sequences.
images, from top to bottom:
1. Plan, Urban connection, 1:500
2. Detailed plan, project site, 1:200
3. View of the Hill Garden
4. View of the Open plaza from St. Jakob-Strasse
5. View of the Conifers Square
