Kempen Comprehensive School Extension

City of Kempen, Germany
International Competition, 2022

Compact volume

Kempen Comprehensive School is located on a site with several surrounding schools that will function as a campus in the future. Our proposal has a compact form that is grouped around the school and relates to the other surrounding schools. The given site is small in relation to the number and areas of functions required for both the school and the outdoor areas. Therefore, one of the ideas pursued was to keep the schoolyard as large and open as possible. In order to obtain the largest possible courtyard and the smallest possible footprint for the building, our answer was obvious: a compact volume extending over 3 levels. This absolute form is broken by 4 courtyards that bring light and relationship elements with what is happening around the school. These courtyards are: Vorplaz, Schulhof, Ruhigerhof, Esshof.

Democratic school

At the level of school configuration, we considered the idea of a democratic school important and tried to extend the principle of democracy to the level of space and architecture by making two important decisions: classes of equal size and an undifferentiated arrangement. All classes are designed in optimal proportion, have a square, modular form of 9/9m and natural lighting on the entire façade. They are all on one level (on the 1st floor), which ensures an even circulation of all students in terms of access to the classroom, access to the forum and open spaces on the ground floor, and access to the floor with the laboratories and library (2nd floor). The exception is the all-day classes, which are located on the ground floor and all open out onto an intimate and friendly courtyard. The children will spend a lot of time in these spaces, so ways have been sought to domesticate and reconfigure the spaces, with places where they can learn together, but also with safer places that offer the opportunity to retreat to a quiet refuge.

Structural concept

The structure consists of a concrete core around which prefabricated wooden elements are arranged. On the ground floor, these prefabricated elements are supported by concrete columns 48/48 cm thick and concrete beams 9×9 m wide. On the upper floors, these panels are supported by 24×24 cm thick glulam columns. The prefabricated slabs are 3×9 m, each slab has 2 concrete end beams and 4 longitudinal wooden ribs/beams.

PROJECT TEAM:

Authors
Adrian Untaru

Andrei Șerbescu

Co-authors
Oana Grămadă
Cezara Țînțăreanu

Collaborators
Amina Alchihabi
Raluca Dumitrescu
Horatiu Zapartan
Bogdan Palade