Fuchshof Primary School
School building as a community center
by David Kasparek
In the west of Ludwigsburg, the new 5.5-track primary school building stretches northwards along the new development area of Fuchshofstrasse. Based on the design image of a filled bookshelf on a playground, this ideal of school learning between knowledge transfer and social interaction was translated into a timber hybrid building. The three ceiling panels cantilever outwards like shelves and offer the school community space for appropriation and individual filling in the middle of a flowing outdoor area.
A covered area cut into the building cubature on the first floor welcomes the children and runs parallel to the administration area, alongside the rooms for the school staff, thus promoting contact between students and teachers. As you enter the building, you find yourself in the actual heart of the building – the large stair hall.
A strikingly designed wooden staircase comes through the open air space and is illuminated by a generous skylight with coffered beams. The staircase hall not only provides a smooth transition between the entrance area and the schoolyard, but also serves as a break and communal area as a place for informal interaction. The staircase hall is also the link and distributor to the individual floors. The cafeteria is located on the eastern side of the central stair hall, which impresses with its multifunctional use and the adjoining club kitchen as an open, functional meeting place. Large-scale glazing on both sides of the building floods the common room with daylight and connects the interior with the outside area.
Spatial differentiation between school community and learning group
On the upper floors, there is a learning cluster on each side of the central stair hall. Illuminated by the inner courtyard, a clear spatial center is organized and indicates the ideal center of the learning group. Specialist, day care and inclusion rooms are organized flanking the staircase hall and connect the learning clusters with each other. In between, there are interior concrete cores containing all the service facilities, such as the sanitary facilities for the individual learning units. Connected to the clusters are the individual classrooms, which are connected to the surrounding, pergola-like balcony by at least three French windows. This not only serves as an escape balcony, but can also be used as a break room and allows quick and easy access to fresh air. A wire mesh serves as fall protection for the surrounding balcony and at the same time allows plenty of daylight into the classrooms.
Materials and colors underline the sustainable claim of the school building
Two emergency staircases rise up on the narrow sides of the concrete basement, which also serve to reinforce the building. The timber construction made of prefabricated elements develops between this solid structure: Cross-shaped timber columns with their striking form structure the floor plan spatially, give it measure and rhythm and, together with glulam beams and cross- laminated timber panels, complete the supporting structure in the skeleton construction. Thanks to the weather-independent prefabrication of all timber components, the school building could be erected with low emissions and at low cost – this was also and above all made possible by the precise work of all those involved in the construction, as the planning for the timber construction in prefabrication ultimately had to be very precisely coordinated with the tolerances of the in-situ concrete on the construction site.
The interior of the school building is characterized by natural materials and colors: a linoleum floor with embedded pieces of textured cocoa shells, natural, acoustically effective wood wool ceiling elements and glazed wooden components for columns, doors and furniture complement the atmospheric, calm basic tone with a rough-sawn exposed concrete structure, while the colour concept is accentuated throughout the interior spaces, including the sanitary facilities, and deliberately focuses on a gender-neutral character. The colors serve not only as a design element, but also as a means of orientation and identity. The color concept is also reflected in the clusters, which include furniture specially made for the Fuchshofschule that can be arranged as table and bench combinations in various community-building shapes, from circles to serpentine lines.
The design concept thus comes full circle from the outdoor spaces to the communal areas and the community-building centers of the learning clusters to the actual classrooms.
