Description

The existing school buildings comprised three separate 1950s blocks standing within an attractive 3 hectare semi-suburban site in Berlin-Neukölln on what was formerly an edge of a city zone, being located close to the old Berlin wall which separated the east from the west for almost three decades. The architects’ project was to provide additional teaching and administrative accommodation with a new multi-purpose sports and meeting hall. One of the most important requirements was for a new entrance to ensure a less porous and more coherent sense of place, connecting the existing free-standing blocks of teaching accommodation.

From a distance it is apparent that the attractive campus site with mature trees and an open accessible feel required the imposition of a clearly defined site edge to the street, the point where most of the users arrive. This was important not simply because previously the reception area was poorly defined thus creating security problems, but also because the client felt a communal space such as an entrance was potentially a critical area for social interaction between the various age ranges. The issues have been cleverly resolved by way of a new block which runs along the street edge, gently curving with the curve of the street and on the interior of the block, linking the three separate classroom buildings by a new corridor which runs across on three levels. At one end of the new addition there is a major new entrance, at the other a feature escape stair which penetrates the ‘wall’ before disappearing into the rear of the block.

The sports hall stands alone to the rear part of the site. Within the new extension there are four physics rooms, four rooms for arts and crafts, a photographic laboratory, a crafts room for heavy construction (such as vehicle maintenance), four rooms for music and a library. New staircases and a lift provide much-needed access to the existing accommodation which is on three levels as well as new accommodation, so that rather than being separate disparate schools, the whole is integrated and made coherent with functional access routes which are generous and social. This is important particularly in a secondary school setting where there tends to be much more movement between different teaching areas. The connections between old and new parts are subtle; materials flow one into the other, the 1950s blocks seamlessly attaching themselves to the new classroom wing.

The palette of materials is limited, yet it creates a warm atmosphere. With granite floors, in-situ concrete stairwells and light timber doors it is also robust; having been in use for several years now, the building remains largely undamaged, an important aspect in any new school and a factor which perhaps distinguishes this building from most others. Schools must be built to last. Inside the classrooms, walls are white rendered; however, the rhythm of the structural grid is clearly stated with exposed con­crete beams spanning the space from the rear corridor grid to the curved external wall. It all adds up to a highly successful balance between old and new, security and openness, open social spaces and more traditional closed teaching spaces.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.