Page 113 - AIT0523_E-Paper

Piktogramm: Montag Stiftung Jugend und Gesellschaft

Rendering: PONNIE Images

Gemeinschaftsschule „Am Hartwege“ in Weimar: Lernloft (3) • Comprehensive school in Weimar (3) Piktogramm des nutzungsvariablen Lernlofts (3) • Pictogram of the variable-use loft for learning (3)

A pproaches of progressive education are older than the industrial age. But why are catastrophe also forces us to use existing resources sparingly, in the best case: to recycle
the ideas of Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Friedrich Fröbel (1782–1852) and Maria
and reuse them. We would like to demonstrate this with a few examples from our of-
Montessori (1870–1952), whose ideals of a “new pedagogy” have so far led a niche exi- fice. In a kind of municipal research project, the idea of an “educational landscape” was
stence outside of mainstream schools, forcing us to immediately rethink school con- developed in Cologne, combining seven educational institutions at an inner-city loca-
struction? For more than ten years, our team at gernot schulz : architektur has been a tion to form an educational landscape. On the edges of an existing park, a kind of vil-
thought leader and implementation expert with multi-award-winning and sought-after lage community with public alleys and the use of the park as a schoolyard for the se-
expertise in the field of new school- and educational buildings. We always start by as- condary school was designed in 2020 with the Altstadt Nord Bildungslandschaft (1). A
king questions about the needs arising from the pedagogy and processes in the prepa- study house with a library and a canteen- and studio building offer spaces of synergetic
ratory and participatory processes. It is important to look into the future! The needs use for all schools and neighbourhood institutions. Cluster-like room configurations
make it clear what kind of spaces a school community requires. The word “space” here offer groups of learners – a year group, individual classes or groups in the kindergarten
includes all qualities of architectural space: Form, organization, adaptability, lighting, and primary school – “temporary home” with communal and retreat areas, their own
acoustic and lighting qualities, the relationship to the outdoor space and, enormously kitchens and direct access to outdoor spaces. A further example from our office is in
important in increasingly open floor plans, the furniture as well as colours and textures Langenhagen (2). A new grammar school was built near Hanover on a scale that was
of surfaces. Together with landscape architects and educators, we also turn the outdoor unthinkable a few years ago. We designed individual houses of learning, each of which
space into a learning space. provides a floor-by-floor home for the different grades and is linked to all the other
rooms via a boulevard on the ground floor. With a number of special approvals granted
In the digital age: change is becoming the norm for the first time in Germany, a wood-steel-concrete hybrid building was designed that
allows the CO2-intensive material concrete to be used only in those components where
Change is becoming the norm. At the same time, the frustration of teachers is growing it is necessary for structural and/or fire-protection reasons. Only in this way was it pos-
since it is becoming more and more difficult to keep learners enjoying learning. The dif- sible to build a school for 1,700 students and 200 teachers in only four and a half years
ferent prerequisites, talents, but also needs of the children in an inclusive learning en- after the competition decision.
vironment desired by society are too great. Clinging to old methods for solving new que-
stions does not provide an answer, for example in relation to the shortage of professio- Pilot project Am Hartwege comprehensive school in Weimar
nals. The digital job platforms are full of job advertisements that are also and especially
aimed at people without training and school-leaving qualifications or lateral entrants, In the middle of a residential area, on a park-like school site on the outskirts of Weimar,
if they bring positive credentials and aptitudes in the competences referred to as “4Cs”: a new type of school is being built as the Am Hartwege comprehensive school (3). The
creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking. While political and social planning for this is being carried out in an open-source process with multiple author-
leadership positions are increasingly occupied by people who have no prior professio- ship initiated and organized by the Montag Stiftung Jugend und Gesellschaft, which is
nal qualifications, professional and academic degrees are required as objective entry new for architecture. The pilot project Weimar, StadtLandSchule is one of many model
requirements for public service employees. projects of the Bauausstellung Thüringen 2023. Taking up Le Corbusier’s Dom-Ino idea,
a standardized structure consisting of six rooms and a core was developed, which not
Designing educational buildings of the present time for the future only meets the different spatial requirements of teaching and communal areas with
non-load-bearing façades, furniture fixtures and visible media routings, but also enab-
The educational buildings of the present must be designed to meet today’s require- les future conversion to residential and/or office use. An additional all-around façade
ments but also those of the conceivable future. One of these requirements is the increa- layer of balconies and all-around accesses extends each floor and each use into the out-
sing all-day organization of schools, away from the special all-day rooms that are still door space. The guiding principle of the workshop shapes the design of the three struc-
common today towards educational buildings that are used all day. However, the con- tures, consisting of a communal house and two houses of learning. The interior spaces
cept of “education” must be readjusted in view of the changed reality of life, the oppor- initiate new forms of mediation and cooperation at eye level through the spatial struc-
tunities and risks resulting from digitality and the exponential growth in knowledge. ture and the furnishings. The playability of the façades and the park design invite ap-
For a few weeks now, programmes of so-called AI (artificial intelligence) have been avai- propriation by the school community and the residents since the site is opened up for
lable to the general public, showing us in unstoppable dynamics that machines have neighbourhood use just as is the ground floor of the community house. The knowledge
long since overtaken us in terms of knowledge. Therefore, we need an immediate ret- gained by all those involved in this pilot project is made freely available by the Montag
hinking in both pedagogy and architecture, and not in some distant future. The climate Stiftung Jugend und Gesellschaft at the link www.schulbauopensource.de

AIT 5.2023 • 113