New Frankfurt Schools

The city of Frankfurt seeks for a renovation of the Holzhausen Schule. Built within the reform program “Neues Frankfurt” in the 1920s, the project should transform the existing structure for new school tasks, while preserving the historical substance. Schools today fulfill multiple purposes. While the periphery invites the neighborhood to share their knowledge, the separating walls of the classrooms are removed enabling free play and a diverse learning environment. A learning landscape grows. Easily fabricated and installed, the wooden structure counters the city’s need for school places.

Understanding learning as a critical examination of our surrounding, seemingly small details enrich our imagination. To free the floor plan from the linear dimensions of the corridor school, the dividing walls are removed. Imitating the simple constructive logic of the reinforced concrete skeleton, beetle cross-laminated timber is milled in CNC according to the load bearing course. Left-over materials are used to structure the diverse learning environments, from the animated balconies, over the communal spaces to the individual niches. The adjoining rooms are used for activities that demand more separation and special equipment. On top, you will find the roof garden for artistic purpose. Inviting the neighborhood, the periphery of the building opens with a variety of uses. An assembly hall with theater stage moves into the old sports hall, while a new sports hall is set on top. Together with the two-story high library and teacher’s café, the buildings form an arrival place, where the children, their parents and teachers meet every day. On the eastside the former storage rooms are reinstalled as ateliers. To the back you will find a communal eating space, with food produced in place. Forms shape our daily lives, they inform us about logics, they give us orientation and organize our communal life. Wandering through buildings of different time periods, those forms allow us to recognize standards. As the critical theory according to Horkheimer says: „It does not have to be alike, we can change the way things are, the circumstances are in place.“ So let’s continue to (re-)shape Frankfurt’s Schools together!