Learning in a Green Setting
Honorable mention in competition for Garzauer Straße Integrated Secondary School
Boring blackboard teaching is a thing of the past: Our design for a modern school building in Berlin focuses on the needs of the pupils – with a flexible learning environment that encourages independence and creativity.
A site of around 15,100 m² in Berlin Marzahn-Hellersdorf should become home to a building for 600 pupils that is based on the latest pedagogic concepts and optimally supports the collective learning of an entire year group Our design for the new building was awarded an honorable mention in the limited competition.
Flexible learning environment
The basic idea of our design for the integrated secondary school on Garzauer Straße is that of a modern school building that supports the abilities of its pupils to learn independently and shape their own curriculum, offers space for communication and social interaction, and facilitates flexible learning situations both inside and out. This is ensured by the clear structuring of the new building, which permits optimal orientation and offers a range of spaces tailored to meet the varying needs of the pupils – from classic frontal teaching, via group and project work, to self-learning.
Our concept implements modern teaching concepts that encourage entire year groups to learn together. Our focus was to create an exciting and stimulating learning environment – far removed from the frontal teaching that most of us still remember. Here, the school can really become a second home.
Christina Rapp
Architect, Lead Project Manager in Nuremberg
Low CO₂ footprint, reduced lifecycle costs
One central requirement of the competition was that projects should meet the requirements of the silver standard of the sustainability criteria of the evaluation system Sustainable Building (BNB) for School Buildings. In cooperation with ATP sustain, our research company for sustainable design and building, we designed our project to be climate neutral across the entire lifecycle of the building.
Measures included the use of renewable energy to generate electricity and heat (geothermal and solar energy, PV plant), excellent daylight levels, and a needs-based ventilation system with a compound heat recovery system that takes the form of a highly-intelligent “Energy Management Unit.”
The building is designed as a hybrid timber structure, with the use of concrete being reduced to the minimum in order to optimize the CO₂ footprint. The loadbearing columns and solid parapets are made of wood. The timber facade with vertical slats balances the loss of green space and reduces the impact of the building as a heat island.
Beyond the classroom
The classrooms are grouped around a shared central space that can be flexibly used. The volumetric solution for the building creates a series of protected courtyards that can assume a range of functions, while the recesses in the interlocking elements enable internal and external spaces to flow together.
The concept for the open spaces, which includes the adjacent green areas with their mature trees, offers an attractive range of potential uses – including sports fields with a gymnastics zone, a break time landscape, a school garden with raised beds, and a grassy mound with terraced seating cut into the ground that can also be used for external teaching.
