More daylight in the basement workshop

As part of the elementary school’s renovation, existing basement rooms were converted into classrooms. A key challenge was ensuring that the new classrooms in the basement received natural daylight.

Originally, excavations were planned on the north side to create two atriums. However, the size required for an atrium would have significantly disrupted the existing architecture: the parapet around the atrium would have cut off nearly half of the staircase and significantly restricted the use of the outdoor area.

The solution was found with the Heliobus® Light Tunnels®. They provide the workshop with natural daylight without losing valuable outdoor space. This allowed the existing architecture to be preserved and continue to be used optimally.

In addition, providing natural light via the Spiegelschächte® was more cost-effective than the planned excavation of a light well. The project demonstrates how existing basement spaces can be transformed into Daylight Engineering , functional spaces suitable for educational use through well-designed Daylight Engineering .

Read a detailed news article about the project here—featuring comments from construction planner Rolf Borer and textiles and technical design teacher Manuela Furrer.

Work by Heliobus®: Design and implementation
Client and architectural designer: Rolf Borer, Atelier für Bau & Design
Project owner: Municipality of Metzerlen-Mariastein