Integrated Comprehensive School

Rinteln, 2021

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 cut in the client's own forestry operation. Facing the schoolyard, the 112-meter-long new 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. 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.

Data

Competition 2017 / 1st prize
Completion 2021
Client Landkreis Schaumburg, Stadthagen
Gross floor area 9,315 m²
Gross volume 35,000 m³

Paul-Erdniß-Straße 1a
31737 Rinteln

Awards
1st prize at the Wood Construction Award of Lower Saxony 2022
Shortlisted for the State Prize for Architecture Lower Saxony 2022

Finalist at the German Sustainability Award in Architecture 2022
Honorable Mention at the Federal Wood Construction plus Competition
Shortlisted for the German Wood Construction Award 2023

Honorable Mention at the German Architecture Award 2023 Award at the BDA Prize Lower Saxony 2023
Shortlist for the Heinze Architecktur AWARD 2023

Rubber studded floor
Shuttering from native larch
Cast stone
Textile sun protection