Bitzi

Location

9607 Mosnang

Type of contract

Competition, 1st Prize 2000

Construction period

2004–2006

Client

Canton of St.Gallen

Landscape

Peter Weber, St.Gallen

Civil engineering

Wieser Stacher AG, St.Gallen

HVAC planning

Jäger & Haltiner, St.Gallen

Sanitary planning

Edwin Keller + Partner AG, Gossau

Artworks

Hans Thomann

Photography

Nina Baisch

The transformation of the former cantonal prison into an intervention centre required a significant expansion of the facility. Instead of creating a large building complex, the various uses were distributed among individual buildings. These assume the scale of the surrounding housing. Together with the existing building, the three new buildings form a pinwheel-like structure around a central square. All entrances to the buildings face the square, making them easy to survey and control. The complex has the character of a small village. More

The existing Building 1 houses the administration with reception and the central office. In addition, the medical area, the necessary offices and the detention cells were built here. Building 2 is a multi-purpose building that contains communal uses and building services. The dining hall with adjoining large kitchen, a multi-purpose hall and recreation rooms are located here. The care departments are located in the two other buildings. Building 3 houses the closed ward, whose two living groups each offer space for eight inmates. Each residential group has two covered and fenced terraces as outdoor areas. There are workrooms on the ground floor. Building 4 houses the open ward with three identical floors. Each floor houses one residential group with 12 inmates. A common feature of all the new buildings are the skylights above the staircases, which characterise the light-filled atmosphere of the circulation areas. The buildings are based on a concrete frame structure. The partition walls and building envelope are made from prefabricated timber elements.
The existing commercial building underwent minor adaptations, and an agricultural building that also belonged to the intervention centre remained unaltered. A replacement nursery with a glass greenhouse and three foil greenhouses were built on the edge of the site.
In keeping with the concept of similar building volumes, the new buildings have a uniform architectural language. Deliberately arranged recesses create compositional tension in the otherwise clearly defined, three-storey cubic buildings. These are the entrances on the ground floor and the balconies and circulation areas on the upper floors. Eternit tiles as facade cladding reinforces the impression of the physical volumes and integrates them successfully into the landscape.
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Site plan
a typical cell
Building B, section
Building B, west elevation
Building B, south elevation
Artwork by Hans Thomann
Building B, first floor plan
Building B, second floor plan
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