Wolfacker Elementary School, Düdingen: Competition Win

The structural concept of the four-story timber building is based on a continuous skeleton system featuring box-girder floors (Lignatur) and joist axes running perpendicular to the building. This system ensures high structural efficiency, clear structural logic, and maximum flexibility of use.

The primary structural framework consists of glued-laminated timber beams spanning in parallel axes. Due to the moderate spans, the cross-sections of the beams and columns can be optimized, resulting in a material- and resource-efficient structure with high load-bearing capacity and serviceability. The regular grid pattern enables cost-effective prefabrication and easy adaptation to the functional requirements of the units.

Solid wood box-girder floors are used as the secondary structural system. These elements transfer the lateral loads and distribute them to the joists. The box-girder elements offer high stiffness with low dead weight and allow for the integration of building physics requirements—such as sound insulation, room acoustics, and building services routing—into the floor structure.

The horizontal bracing of the building is provided by selected interior walls, which are structurally activated by cross-bracing.

^© Images/Renderings: cyaan_visualization, Zurich

We look forward to working with the project participants to bring this to fruition.