The Hofacker school grounds, in the Hirslanden district of Zurich, consist of the school building with a gymnasium by Friedrich Wehrli, built in 1898, and a second gymnasium wing from 1938, by city architect Hermann Herter. These two existing school buildings stand like large and heavy cubes in the center of the plot, maintaining an appropriate distance to the residential buildings that surround them. Despite their architectural quality, for which the buildings have been listed and protected, the site could not fulfill the needs of a modern educational facility, and the buildings needed renovation. The school should also contain more public functions for the neighborhood in the future. In between the two protected buildings, a two-story new construction is inserted. Its facade is designed as a monolithic, double-shell concrete structure, poured in-situ and with a bush hammered finish that establishes a formal dialog with the existing. The interior combines different programs to comply with the demanding brief: the sports hall is partially buried; the auxiliary spaces (dining room, kitchens, administration) are on ground level; and lastly, on the last floor, the classrooms are set along the perimeter embracing a toplit central corridor...[+]