Description

The competition for the Bildungslandschaft Altstadt Nord (BAN) in Cologne was announced in response to the Council’s decision to establish a new school campus out of four existing schools, two youth centres and a new children’s nursery. The nursery school opened in 2019, and the schools will follow next, with the refurbishments following thereafter. The BAN provides a series of consecutive educational facilities based on an innovative pedagogical approach that aims to expand the range of schooling for children and young people in the Altstadt-Nord district of Cologne. At the same time, the new and old buildings are intended to serve as an urban integrator connecting the surrounding neighbourhood.

Michael Gräbener, Cologne City Council’s BAN project manager, calls it a municipal research project. As BAN is a pilot project, it was possible to determine the individual needs of all participating institutions in a guided and monitored process without time pressure. This Phase Zero, so-called because it is not outlined in the standard nine work phases of architectural services detailed in the German HOAI fee ordinance structure, has long been common practice in office or hospital construction. Based on the results obtained through the BAN process, this method could be introduced for future projects in school construction and other sectors and usually takes about six months. Numerous participative approaches were employed to elaborate the idea of an integrative educational landscape, not just from a pedagogical viewpoint but also in terms of the building design.

The decision to shift the study centre, including a library and large rooms used by all institutions, to the centre of the site, bordering the southern edge of the park, proved to be fortuitous. It plays a central role in the dense arrangement of small-scale structures surrounding it, including the old primary school building, its extension and the new buildings for the nursery and the secondary school. A permeable network of alleys and clearings weaves between the one-to-four-storey buildings, linking the buildings to one another and with the neighbourhood and park.

If one looks at each part of the ensemble in turn, the centrally located study centre is a good starting point. Its five façades interact in all directions, but the building is only entered on two sides, via the forecourt on Kyotostrasse and the wider space between the primary school and the nursery school on the opposite side. The ground and first floor are the BAN’s communal library – a reading and learning lab with various open areas for research, in-depth study and debate. A broad staircase with seating steps connects the two floors, and the seating niche below creates a separate but open area for smaller children. The second floor can be used in its entirety or temporarily subdivided into seminar and exam rooms as needed.

The listed building of the primary school along the Gereonswall fits harmoniously into the ensemble thanks to the enlightened reform-school architecture of the original school. Designed by the architect Karl Hell at the end of the 1950s, its scale, choice of materials and detailing is oriented to the children’s needs. The 60-year-old school building, with its multi-purpose auditorium and entrance hall, and its butterfly-roof classroom wing is remarkably well attuned to the demands of contemporary educational architecture. The conversion of the open cluster system (with learning areas, studios and a forum), carried out in parallel to the refurbishment of the Célestin-Freinet primary school, were therefore comparatively simple: the architects drew inspiration from the sixty-year-old details and reinterpreted them for the new insertions. Through the addition of a five-sided wing, the primary school, which now serves eight mixed-age classes, now borders the campus on its narrow western side and shields its play areas on the property boundary.

Like the primary school, the nursery school, which forms the northern end of the core area, can be accessed via the traffic-calmed Gereonswall. The ground plan of the two-storey building is made up of five pentagons placed one behind the other, which enclose a play area facing the park. The two end sections are single storey with accessible roofs that can be used as play terraces, augmenting the limited open space of the campus. The interior spaces are reached in a somewhat unusual way, as right angles only arise where there are adjoining rooms such as bathrooms and toilets or elevators. There are no corridors in the traditional sense, but rather a dynamic sequence of wider spaces and narrower passages that structure the circulation space and the four group areas.

Unexpectedly, the secondary school had to be closed due to a lack of new pupils, and in 2010, the Realschule am Rhein, which until then had operated from a provisional site, took up residence in its place. Its new building consists of a chain of three pentagons. With four storeys, it is the highest building on the campus, lending it special presence in the ensemble. The secondary school is entered via the central building, which has a small auditorium on the ground floor. Here, too, the shell of the building reflects the structure of the clusters as a spatial prerequisite for the various forms of learning. The different learning and teaching spaces and their accompanying differentiation and recreation areas, sanitary areas and a team room (as a satellite to the teachers’ room) are combined into a distinct unit. Special clusters have been created for music, for art or for the natural sciences. The building’s teaching kitchen can also be booked by the other schools.

At the north-eastern corner of the BAN is a new, three-storey canteen and studio building, which, like the study centre, is an advantage of the large cluster. The narrow rectangular section acts as a bridge to the Hansa Gymnasium and complements the existing building which extends into the park. The refectory, which was designed for all 2200 children and young people taught at the BAN, has a kitchen for fresh food, which is provided in three shifts, first the primary school children, then the larger children, with the nursery school children receiving their food delivered. To be economical with available space, the large dining room and the refectory above it can be hired out for events outside mealtimes. The four studios on the second floor, each about 90 m² in size, can be booked by the schools and the two youth facilities on the campus.

Originally published in Bauwelt 12.2019, pp. 20-27, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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