Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium

An exciting ensemble of old and new buildings opens up in a U-shape to the south-west towards the spacious open areas of the Gerhart Hauptmann Grammar School. The extension of the school building closes the gap between the historic building and the adjacent gymnasium from the 1980s, thus creating a new central entrance to the school and synergies between the existing sports hall and the school extension. The three-storey structure of the new building is significantly flatter than the gable of the old building. Its façade is set back from the street line of the existing building on Dahlmannstraße. The extension maintains a respectful distance from the old brick building. A new central school staircase connects the old and new buildings and also frames the view of the richly decorated north-west gable from the interior. The listed garden house on the southern transverse building of the old building can remain in place and will be given a new school use.

The L-shaped old building and the new buildings complement each other to form a design and functional unit with many synergy effects. In the existing building, the basic structure of the classrooms remains largely unchanged. The interventions in the historic building fabric are therefore minimal. On the ground floor and first floor, the new building encloses the existing centrally divisible sports hall on three sides in a U-shape. The service rooms, toilets and equipment rooms are located at the front of the ground floor, while the new school administration offices are located on the first floor.

Like the existing buildings, the school building and the gymnasium, the extension is also clad in red clinker brickwork. Large closed surfaces are divided by generous window openings, most of which indicate the location of the classrooms in the building. The windows, in a maintenance-friendly wood-aluminium construction, are framed by prefabricated reinforced concrete elements. This results in an economical and sustainable construction.