Description

Many new schools have been built in the past few years that use wide, generous stairs and thus combine circulation with auditorium-type seating for large group gatherings or for informal encounters. One of the most impressive examples can be seen at the A. P. Møller School, serving the Danish speaking minority in the province of Schleswig in Germany and designed by the Danish practice of C. F. Møller. Funded by The A. P. Møller and Chastine McKinney Møller Foundation, the school has a luxury of space and material not afforded by most school building budgets, something that is expressed by its vast central atrium. Here numerous activities can occur in the space simultaneously, supporting the school’s educational approach of flexible and personalised learning.

From the ground floor the grand ‘Coliseum’ type stair leads to an oversized first floor landing housing the school’s ‘knowledge centre’ and then on again to the second floor. With regular steps up either side and double-sized steps in the middle the staircase not only provides the principal vertical circulation route in the building, but also forms a place where students can sit, eat lunch, read a book or gather to watch a performance occurring in the main entrance area. The staircases and several enclosed teaching rooms that sit within the atrium all serve to break up the vast space and create zones that, although all connected, provide places of different size and character in which to study, gather or relax. Critical in enabling these activities to occur alongside each other is the acoustic design of the building. In fact the school’s director acknowledges the ‘exceptionally good acoustics in every part of the building’ as an important part of its success.

This space is symbolic and representative of the school’s core values of dialogue, community and democracy. It does indeed feel more like a civic centre than a school hall.

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Originally published in: Prue Chiles (ed.), Leo Care, Howard Evans, Anna Holder, Claire Kemp, Building Schools: Key Issues for Contemporary Design, Birkhäuser, 2015.