Jazz Campus in Switzerland. A combination of musical improvisation and architectural planning in a single body

Believing in " architecture trouvée," the architecture and design firm Buol&Zünd creates the new Jazz Campus on the footprint of the pre-existing building. Its internal circulation is organized around a central courtyard that leads to various paths and multiple chance encounters or useful shortcuts in such a complex building. The intention was to create a path within the building that starts in the rehearsal rooms where people practice almost privately, continues in the hallways where they meet other people, and culminates in the courtyard where the level of interpersonal relationship is at its highest

A survey of musicians revealed to the architects that there is no perfect rehearsal room for everyone. Some prefer to play in churches, others like to practice in garages, and still others in their living rooms. The one common point was the need for natural light and a comfortable, intimate atmosphere. That is why the Jazz Campus is designed, instead of standard rehearsal rooms, with rooms of different sizes and acoustic qualities to give musicians freedom of choice

The spatial palette with more than 50 rehearsal rooms is complemented by 3 recording and music performance rooms featuring a wooden sound body with a suspended acoustic ceiling, a more intimate performance room combined with a professional recording studio, and finally a Jazz club that opens to the city and acts as an interface with the audience

Acoustic requirements shape the building as it was necessary to build almost a second structure with meter-thick walls inside the main building. The interpretation of the courtyard as an urban interior gives the project a strong quality. Indoor and outdoor spaces are mixed connecting the Jazz Campus and the city. Buol&Zünd's building was the winner of the 2016 American Architecture Prize, in the "Educational Buildings" Bronze category