Leonardo-da-Vinci-Gymnasium

The new building is one of three ‘flagship projects’ in Berlin that were announced as Europe-wide architecture competitions and judged in 2014. The aim was to test new concepts for school construction. The corridor school with hermetically sealed classrooms, which only allow frontal teaching, is being replaced by a new type of school, the Berlin compartment school. Here, pupils in grades 7 to 10 (lower secondary school) and 11 to 12 (upper secondary) learn with and from each other in clearly defined learning areas, or compartments. A compartment consists of four regular classrooms grouped around a forum as a shared learning area. In addition to the forum and the main classrooms, all compartments have two division rooms in which smaller groups of pupils are taught, as well as a shared loggia. The aim is to enable and promote independent learning and to create a homely atmosphere, which is an essential prerequisite for an all-day school. Each compartment is directly connected to the spacious school garden and the sports and recreation areas via a directly assigned staircase.
In addition to a new educational concept, new approaches to sustainable school construction are also being implemented. It is one of the first schools in Germany to be assessed according to the Darmstadt model of standardised certification based on clearly defined sustainability criteria, BNB, and to achieve silver, the second-highest standard. The use of particularly sustainable materials, such as recycled concrete and a heating system that uses geothermal energy, makes the Leonardo da Vinci Gymnasium particularly sustainable.