Christian Academy

Educational centre – elementary and secondary grade
Slovakia, Martin — 2007
education
architect
Boris Redčenkov, Prokop Tomášek, Jaroslav Wertig
team, collaboration
Michal Nohejl

By unpretentious integration in the wider urban context, avoidance of architectonic gestures and focusing on the internal richness and variety the concept tries to accentuate traditional values. Through its inclination to nature, it tries to connect the environmental aspect together with the idea of shared responsibility for the world. Presentation of the vast and complex campus as a village is a hint at the image of the current world which loses traditional scale and becomes a global village. However, even though this village is large and complex, it is fragile and vulnerable. It is not much the scale of the village rather than the degree of belonging and solidarity which defines it.
The form of CEE is a hybrid one. Even though it houses complex modern operations of a school campus, it utilises the archetype of a village. The overall design has two basic components – green substructure and solitaire superstructures. Each of the components delimits its own level and its own world. The substructure level forms the streetscape and its role is to integrate and unify.
The role of the level of superstructures growing from the substructure is to individualise. 
The substructure appears to be part of the natural landscape; however, it is, in fact, the ground floor linked to the original level of the surrounding landscape. Its integration into the landscape is due to the side banks and slopes using the earth from excavations. The objective is to secure even earth balance and to save on carting away and earth deposits while reducing the visual size of the premises by hiding its substantial part under the
elevated landscape. The introvert substructure is perforated by the system of atriums. To the south, the substructure lines the road, to the north the form is cracked by a set of artificial ravines linked to the Valley of Love. 
The second component is formed by the superstructures on the green substructure. Their forms are in the style of traditional country houses. The extrovert solitaire forms allow maximum interconnecting of classrooms with the exterior.
Their layout is styled again as a village including the hierarchy of areas with the focal point in a sort of a village green intended for gathering. This focal point is emphasized by a chapel. The arrangement system is wilfully contrasting the orthogonal structure of the nearby city centre. The masses of buildings form a unified level of development and maintain the intimate scale of the environment - the intentional paradox compared to the size and capacity of the complex, and also an intentional contrast to the monumental skyline present in every vista.
Greenery is the design element equal to architecture. Its objective is not just to cover the base by the vegetation carpet. The work with grown greenery also helps to co-define the image of the village and creates a connection with the surrounding countryside and the valley in the north. The fully grown greenery ranges from solitaire trees, group planting, to orchard forms. The presence of greenery improves the microclimate but mainly it mediates the contact with natural time – with the temporality of nature. The loss of this contact is one of the pathological aspects of the current non-stop artificial environments. The greenery should also be selected with respect to educational purposes.

Christian Academy

Educational centre – elementary and secondary grade
Slovakia, Martin — 2007
education
architect
Boris Redčenkov, Prokop Tomášek, Jaroslav Wertig
team, collaboration
Michal Nohejl

By unpretentious integration in the wider urban context, avoidance of architectonic gestures and focusing on the internal richness and variety the concept tries to accentuate traditional values. Through its inclination to nature, it tries to connect the environmental aspect together with the idea of shared responsibility for the world. Presentation of the vast and complex campus as a village is a hint at the image of the current world which loses traditional scale and becomes a global village. However, even though this village is large and complex, it is fragile and vulnerable. It is not much the scale of the village rather than the degree of belonging and solidarity which defines it.
The form of CEE is a hybrid one. Even though it houses complex modern operations of a school campus, it utilises the archetype of a village. The overall design has two basic components – green substructure and solitaire superstructures. Each of the components delimits its own level and its own world. The substructure level forms the streetscape and its role is to integrate and unify.
The role of the level of superstructures growing from the substructure is to individualise. 
The substructure appears to be part of the natural landscape; however, it is, in fact, the ground floor linked to the original level of the surrounding landscape. Its integration into the landscape is due to the side banks and slopes using the earth from excavations. The objective is to secure even earth balance and to save on carting away and earth deposits while reducing the visual size of the premises by hiding its substantial part under the
elevated landscape. The introvert substructure is perforated by the system of atriums. To the south, the substructure lines the road, to the north the form is cracked by a set of artificial ravines linked to the Valley of Love. 
The second component is formed by the superstructures on the green substructure. Their forms are in the style of traditional country houses. The extrovert solitaire forms allow maximum interconnecting of classrooms with the exterior.
Their layout is styled again as a village including the hierarchy of areas with the focal point in a sort of a village green intended for gathering. This focal point is emphasized by a chapel. The arrangement system is wilfully contrasting the orthogonal structure of the nearby city centre. The masses of buildings form a unified level of development and maintain the intimate scale of the environment - the intentional paradox compared to the size and capacity of the complex, and also an intentional contrast to the monumental skyline present in every vista.
Greenery is the design element equal to architecture. Its objective is not just to cover the base by the vegetation carpet. The work with grown greenery also helps to co-define the image of the village and creates a connection with the surrounding countryside and the valley in the north. The fully grown greenery ranges from solitaire trees, group planting, to orchard forms. The presence of greenery improves the microclimate but mainly it mediates the contact with natural time – with the temporality of nature. The loss of this contact is one of the pathological aspects of the current non-stop artificial environments. The greenery should also be selected with respect to educational purposes.