Holz | Stroh | Lehm (lecture only accessible in German)
Daniel Schilp - MONO ARCHITEKTEN

The school grounds of the Freie Waldorfschule in Prenzlauer Berg occupy a special urban insular location between socialist prefabricated housing, Gründerzeit block perimeter structures and the green spaces of the Jewish cemetery. The existing school building, which has since been renovated to make it more energy efficient, is a 5-story prefabricated building from the 1970s. Following the needs of the growing school community, the school announced a competition for a new after-school care building as well as ideas for later extensions.

The chosen formal canon deliberately sets itself apart from the formal language of the existing buildings and complements them with a lively moment. The new after-school care building docks onto the courtyard side of the school building and stretches like a chain of links from honeycomb-shaped structures in the direction of the sports hall. The schoolyard is given a structural back to the street and a clear center. The projections and recesses create
differentiated outdoor areas with specific functions such as main access or play and break zones. The building structures are given green roofs sloping in different directions and with the
the rising eaves of the wooden facades a sculptural impression.

The central access zone winds from the existing stairwell through the ground-level new building and is alternately accompanied by a solid earthen wall. Recreation zones, checkroom areas, communication and movement areas as well as various exits to the outside alternate. The children enter their group room through the checkroom areas. They are nestled together behind the earthen wall, have direct access to the outside in different directions and a high level above the checkrooms. Like little perches, they protrude from the roofs and look out into the crowns of the surrounding trees.

The ambitious goal was to realize the greatest possible use of natural and renewable building materials and thus to meet the Waldorf pedagogical demands and to set a visible sign for ecological building in a place that is decisively characterized by polluted prefabricated buildings. The competition concept was further developed in a participatory process and led to high user acceptance. Under the motto "Schule baut Schule" (school builds school), the majority of the construction work was carried out by the Berlin Oberstufenzentrum (Knobelsdorff School).

The color scheme is created by the natural colorfulness of the materials, which are exposed to the process of dignified aging as untreated as possible. Colored clay plaster, wooden floors and wall heaters integrated into the exterior clay walls create a cozy atmosphere in the interior spaces. The mass-produced clay wall provides a healthy indoor climate. The supporting structure was made of wood studs, the roofs were lined with cellulose and the exterior walls with non-load-bearing building straw, and the interior was plastered with clay. The façade cladding of vertical larch wood boards of different widths and depths gives the structures a plastically moving surface.

The adjacent district heating is used as an energy source. It feeds the wall heating in the exterior walls and the floor heating in the development zones. Decentralized, humidity-regulated exhaust air systems in the checkrooms support the manual ventilation concept.