Blumen-Grundschule und Bernhard-Rose-Schule

Two schools from the SK-Berlin series built in the 1960s have been given an innovative façade made of coloured anodised aluminium hollow profiles. The Bernhard Rose School was built in 1965-66 as a prototype for the SK-Berlin series by Gerhard Hölke. The school building and the neighbouring Blumen Primary School have been largely preserved and are classified as historic monuments by the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office.
One of the design goals of the renovation is therefore to preserve the essential features of the original prefabricated buildings and to create a distinctive design for the new ‘skin’. The buildings retain their identity and remain preserved for future generations as historical witnesses.
The finely structured outer skin of coloured anodised aluminium profiles protects the street-side classroom and courtyard-side corridor façades with a play of open and closed wall sections. The original band façade on the street side becomes a ‘perforated façade’ with horizontally aligned windows. The individual classrooms are now clearly visible. The more enclosed courtyard façades frame the shared schoolyard at right angles to each other.
The façade consists of rectangular profiles (20x20, 40x20, 60x20, 80x20, 100x20 mm) anodised in different colours. The colour spectrum ranges from white aluminium to dark brown tones. The profiles are mounted on an aluminium substructure with a 16 mm joint. The natural anodised coating forms a resistant and durable façade surface. Graffiti and paint smears can be cleaned with special cleaning agents without damaging the surface.
The front sides of the building blocks are largely plastered. Special details, such as the textured façade with its delicate concrete relief, the filigree steel windows on the toilet blocks and stairwells, the mosaics on the entrance structures and the large-format wall relief depicting the mythological Greek figure Icarus on the front side of the Blumen Primary School, have been restored.