Germany – Construction work for school buildings – Sanierung Windeck-Gymnasium

The city of Bühl plans to renovate building part II of 1970 at the existing Windeck-Gymnasium, Humboldtstraße 3, including the extension of a three-sided escape balcony and the construction of a technical building. The open two-storey entrance hall spatially connects the usage areas and building parts, represents the central area of the entire school and supports students and visitors in orientation within the building. Through a generous seating tier system, the entrance hall can be used as an auditorium for events, breaks, snacks, etc. It connects the ground floor with the first floor, the entrance area with the student café. The roof surface above the auditorium is designed as a wide-spanning wooden construction in the form of a grid, in whose cassette fields skylights bring in daylight and discharge smoke in case of fire. The adjoining corridor areas receive a high quality of stay with seating niches and natural lighting through the new, also centrally located inner courtyard, for the benefit of which the two smaller, existing, flanking inner courtyards are combined into one large, central inner courtyard. The concept of the entrance hall and the central inner courtyard results in extensive demolition and new construction measures in the existing structure, which require sensitive support and underpinning measures. In axis 13, as the boundary of the renovation area, a fire wall is to be created opposite the existing structure, building part I. The high flexibility in the auditorium and the corridor areas is achieved by the arrangement of the new, externally located, three-sided escape balconies as a steel structure, which represent the first escape route. The building is planned with a vertical, perforated trapezoidal sheet and post-and-beam facade. On the first floor there are mainly classrooms and the student café. On the ground floor there are also mainly classrooms, but also ancillary rooms under the open staircase and parental consultations as well as first aid, in direct proximity to the main entrance. The building is constructed with a vertical, perforated trapezoidal sheet and post-and-beam facade. The glass facade consists of a 3-fold glazing with aluminium frames and opening casements as escape doors as the first escape route. The interior of the renovation area is essentially determined by three materials: wood, glass and concrete. The building is a solid construction made of concrete. This means that all structurally relevant elements consist of reinforced concrete: the internal walls for bracing, the internal columns for load transfer and the ceiling/floor slab/roof for spanning the distances. The structural concept is not hidden in most areas, but is designed as exposed concrete in the public areas and corridors. Thus, the building material contributes on the one hand to the statics and on the other hand also to the appearance within the building. The glass serves for the natural lighting of the building. All rooms on the outer string and adjoining the inner courtyard have glazing located in the facade. In addition, natural light is brought into the building in special areas such as the auditorium and an internal corridor via skylights in the roof. The roof is designed as a flat pitched roof with 2% slope insulation. It is sealed with bitumen and extensively planted to reduce the rainfall runoff value and supplemented by a PV system. The building is constructed to the energy standard KFW55. Useable area: approx. 3,395 m², gross volume: approx. 24,735 m³.