Menzingen Cantonal School

The former Bernarda teacher training college in Menzingen was built between 1955 and 1958 by the two renowned Zug architectural teams of Hanns A. Brütsch and Alois Stadler, and Leo Hafner and Alfons Wiederkehr. The school on a gentle slope in the midst of the attractive landscape between Lake Zug and Lake Zurich is an exceptional example of 1950s Swiss architecture. The facility impresses with its staging of the exposed location, the coherent arrangement of five highly individualised buildings around a circular centre, and the notable design of the open spaces by Ernst Kramer.

Between 2017 and 2019, the facility was renovated and extended in exemplary fashion by the Zurich architectural team Bünzli & Courvoisier. On the one hand, the project is strongly orientated towards the urban-planning and architectural design principles of the existing building. On the other, the architects develop the existing structures further like a collage, thereby giving the school a respectfully staged, extended dramatic quality.

The volume extensively reflects upon and documents in detail the school’s exciting, exemplary renovation.

Features articles by Andrea Burkhard, Christian Hönger, Gerold Kunz, Arthur Rüegg, Urs Stahel, and Günther Vogt.

Text in English and German.