Nature an architectural approach. The school and why perception matters. A primary school in Zurich West

If we assume that architecture is the art of replacing our immediate surroundings, the designed or constructed space has something in common with nature: it assumes the role of something that surrounds us as a whole. Space is something we perceive and sense. It is an exchange between people and their surroundings and thus in constant transformation. It is not form and proportions that lead to diversity but rather the way things manifest themselves and the way we experience and sense them. In that context, space is not regarded as something objectively out there that one can leave behind and which will remain intact and unaffected until one happens to re-enter it. Instead, one might imagine that space unfolds and that it is defined through movement, time and atmosphere. As a consequence, this would disturb the perception of our material and objective world and bring us closer to the sensible and subjective. In that perspective the project is suggesting an architecture that becomes an instrument for perception.