School as city

The new building for the Kolkwitz comprehensive school forms an urban ensemble of school buildings and sports hall that is carefully embedded in the rural surroundings. For this purpose, a flat and coherent building structure was developed, but broken up into different volumes, which occupies the centre of the site and thus divides it into different areas, reacting to the different design parameters with regard to the access situation, noise pollution and the topography of the terrain. The different volumes structure the building into evenly divided one- and two-storey areas, which are connected by spacious terraces and thus give the building a balanced appearance. Thanks to this structuring, the overall size of the building and thus the scale of the architecture is set in relation to the natural surroundings. The result is a resolved building cubature that stands for an inviting and accessible place of learning for all.

Inside, the design is clearly organised according to the requirements of the individual functional areas and offers a variety of visual relationships thanks to the dissolved shape of the building, which also creates proximity and clarity between the functions. The general classrooms are all located on the upper floor to create a calm and concentrated learning atmosphere, while the specialist rooms, administration, sports hall and communal and all-day areas are positioned on the ground floor. The general classrooms are planned as flexible cluster structures with various differentiation areas, which are connected by a central hub and are complemented by teacher stations, collection rooms and other ancillary rooms to form an educational unit.