Description

The new German School in Madrid was directly sponsored by the German government, which means that the school functions as an instrument of official cultural relations in the city, together with the embassy and the Goethe Institute. Its distinctive auditorium and sports hall host events open to the general public. But just as importantly, the architecture of the school plays a representative role. The design must respond not only to the demands of function, comfort, energy efficiency and so on: its response to these demands is inevitably suffused with representational intent, with a message of exemplarity that is directed to students, their families and the community at large.

A second determining factor was the site: how to take advantage of its attractions and address its weaknesses. The 27,000 m² school, which currently has 1600 students, is set on a rather tight parcel of 34,700 m² that also includes its sports fields. It is located on the extreme northern border of Madrid, where the city comes to an abrupt stop at the edge of the vast natural reserve of El Pardo, with spectacular views towards the Guadarrama Mountains beyond. Extending on the other side of the irregular parcel is one of the raw new developments planned by the City of Madrid in the early 2000s. Known as Montecarmelo, the district has failed as yet to coalesce into a living, attractive neighborhood, in part due to Spain’s economic crisis, but also to its mediocre planning. The school moved here from a centrally located campus that opened in 1961, and was designed in a Modernist style by architect Willy Schöbel Ungría. The old buildings were deemed obsolete for current teaching methods and technologies, according to the school’s director, Frank Müller, and not susceptible to renovation.

The Berlin-based firm of Grüntuch Ernst Architects won the 2009 competition for the project over 24 other studios. Their design is composed of a fractal matrix of irregular polygons, which extends to every scale of the project, from building masses to paving divisions. In the overall composition, this matrix adapts well to the irregular shape and topography of the site and allows the architects to create a network with multiple points of centrality that works well for the overall organization of the school.

The largest program spaces occupy the widest end of the parcel, including the sports fields and gymnasium (exceptionally, these are orthogonal in plan), and the auditorium and highschool. They are followed by the smaller elementary school and kindergarten. Each school has a polygonal plan with a central, partially open courtyard, and opens towards the back of the site, with classrooms oriented towards the views.

The open spaces between the schools feature landscaping and playgrounds towards the back, and an elaborate system of partially covered “foyer courtyards” facing the bus drop-off. The hexagonal cafeteria stands amid these pergolas, dividing them into two zones, a larger one where students enter and congregate before going to their separate schools, and a smaller area between the kindergarten and elementary school, providing a covered outdoor play area for rainy days. The foyer courtyards are enclosed by screens, creating an inwardly focused realm separated from the neighborhood.

Grüntuch Ernst have built the structure entirely of exposed concrete, with both prefab elements and poured sections, the latter cosmetically finished by the builder following the pours. The elevations echo the triangulated geometry of the plans with angled piers and columns. A network of interlacing, angled precast columns support the classroom wings on their facades, with motorized sunshades and continuous glazing behind them. In the foyer courtyards, massive angled piers support the heavy concrete pergolas, whose roofs are pierced by irregular polygonal openings, splashing patterns of light and shadow about. This monumental scale continues in the cafeteria, with sheer glazed walls behind the piers, and in the auditorium, an adaptable space seating 700, which has a slightly pitched, tent-like roof scattered with skylights. Less successfully, large angled piers also frame the street-side entry to the gym, but they seem out of place with its rectangular shape and exposed concrete walls (perhaps a lighter infill such as brick or metal could have offered a better complement to the glass walls of the other volumes). The entry into the sports area from the main foyer courtyard is also rather awkward, a symptom maybe of the difficulties of the site and the clash between the orthogonal and polygonal geometries.

The surfaces of the covered courtyards negotiate the uneven site with steps, ramps and slopes, a kind of “geometric landscape” which lends itself to play and informal appropriation for a variety of activities. The angular geometry can be disorienting and maze-like – “you never know where you are,” the architects observe – but this can also be attractive.

The rich formal language of the exteriors brings to mind Brutalist architecture, particularly the long facades of the classroom volumes, updated with the jazzy angled elements. Other 1960s touches include the orange curtains in the auditorium and cafeteria, designed by artist Carsten Nicolai, which swirl around on tracks, creating moiré patterns, and the globular suspended lighting fixtures by Bocci in the cafeteria. The energy-savings provisions include an elaborate “thermal labyrinth” under the buildings that tempers outdoor air to lower the need for mechanical cooling and heating.

Compared to the hyperactive spatial play of the outdoor spaces, and the rich development of the facades, the school interiors seem undernourished. One misses a sense of spatial engagement with a vital pedagogical project. In this sense, the design remains closer in spirit to the neutral interiors and rhetorical “high tech” structures of Norman Foster, where firm partner Armand Grüntuch worked for many years, than to the “stucturalist” school designs pioneered by Aldo van Eyck. However, the architects use hot accent colors as a coding system. There are panels of color in the classrooms and parts of the corridor, and color saturates every surface of the bathrooms.

Originally published in Bauwelt 47.2015, pp. 16-23, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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