Paul-Lincke-Grundschule

The primary school was built in 1963 as a typical school of the German Building Academy and is located in a residential area of high-rise buildings on the edge of Prenzlauer Berg. As part of the ‘Future for Education and Care’ (IZBB) investment programme, the U-shaped building complex was converted and expanded into a triple-track open all-day school with 200 places. The project was completed in early February 2008 after a construction period of around 17 months.

The most visible intervention from the outside is a horizontal glazed L-shape made of folded precast concrete elements, which was simply placed in front of the existing single-storey building with a gabled roof dating from the 1960s. The canteen, which has been extended around an axis, forms the horizontal line, while the necessary new emergency staircase forms the vertical line.
The school had to be adapted to the current demands of a full-time school and further expanded. This included the extension of the much too small canteen with a terrace, six group rooms, a practice kitchen and staff rooms. Part of the project was also to secure a second escape route throughout the entire school building.

The emergency stairwell, which is also used as a direct connection to the cafeteria, is made entirely of exposed concrete: walls, ceilings, stair soffits and steps in concrete grey contrast with the steel and glass façade and the sculpturally closed band of the sheet steel balustrade. The children's recreation rooms are flooded with light, white and light grey. The cool grey of the façade and the light grey wooden windows give the renovated old building an abstract, slightly alienated character. The fine vertical lines in the plaster, the ‘broom stroke’, create a surface with a soft, textile appearance.