Viganello High School

Short description

For the Liceo cantonale di Lugano 2 in Viganello, Implenia, acting as the general contractor on behalf of the Canton of Ticino, built a temporary school facility using a modular construction system.

The project

The building provides classrooms, specialized rooms, a teachers’ lounge, and auxiliary spaces, and ensures that school operations can continue during the renovation of the existing school building. Implenia managed the project as a single point of contact: from planning and coordinating all specialized designers through the prefabrication of the modules to the turnkey handover to the client.

Challenges

Only about nine months were available between the start of construction in September 2022 and completion in June 2023. To ensure that the temporary facility would be ready for occupancy in time for the start of the school year, planning, prefabrication at the factory, and on-site work proceeded largely in parallel. While the modules were being prefabricated industrially, Implenia was already laying foundations and installing utility lines on the construction site. The subsequent assembly was completed quickly and with minimal emissions into the surrounding area [if applicable: while school operations continued on the adjacent site]. Close coordination between the architect, HVAC, electrical, and civil engineers, as well as building physics experts, was crucial to meeting the high standards for indoor climate, acoustics, and energy efficiency—even in a temporary structure.

Sustainability

The building meets the Minergie standard, providing students and teachers with a comfortable, energy-efficient learning environment. Photovoltaic panels on the roofs generate part of the electricity needed right on site. The modules are designed so that, once their temporary use has ended, they can be dismantled and reassembled at another location. This keeps materials and embodied energy in circulation, rather than having them dismantled and disposed of after just a few years.

Further information

The prefabricated modules were designed, built, and delivered in collaboration with DM Bau AG. As the general contractor, Implenia Svizzera SA assumed overall responsibility for costs, schedules, and quality and coordinated all parties involved in planning and construction. The project demonstrates how modular construction enables public building authorities to provide much-needed school space quickly, to a high standard, on schedule, and in a resource-efficient manner.