ICS Integrated Comprehensive School in Rinteln
The site of the Integrated Comprehensive School is located at Burgfeldsweide, south of the city center of Rinteln (Lower Saxony). A simple and geometrically clear structure, designed for a maximum of 900 pupils, complements the ensemble on the school site opposite the existing high school. With its calm, rectangular geometry, the two-story new building formulates an urban counterpoint to the evolved structure of the existing building. Its façade is made of larch wood, which was cut in the client's own forestry operation. Facing the schoolyard, the 112 m long school building has an open entrance zone along its entire long side, which serves as a welcome gesture, a covered break area, a communication space and access to the individual learning clusters. This mediating entrance creates a low- threshold access into a bright and friendly school building.
The internal layout of the new building is also clear and simple: three rectangular double clusters sit on a base occupied by subject rooms and administration, which are subdivided and lit via four inner courtyards. Designed as play yards or interior reed gardens, the inner courtyards allow for easy orientation within the building and clear address formation of the individual clusters.
Music and art rooms form the central block of specialized classes on the ground floor, the rather more robust area of workshops is oriented to the west, and the specialized science classes define the back of the building to the north. The administrative area is located close to the bus stops and parking lots, and is thus accessible to parents and teachers by a short route - and yet arranged rather discreetly with respect to school operations.
The ICS was designed to be barrier-free, integrative and sustainable. It is designed as a demountable solid wood building with a timber frame façade, almost all essential structural and building components remain visible in the interior. This makes the timber construction an initial component of the design concept. Pleasant room atmosphere and material haptics are combined with rational production, short construction time and a future-oriented energy concept.
