Tiroler Straße Nürnberg

On the site of the former SS barracks directly adjacent to the central Nazi Party rally grounds in Nuremberg, a comprehensive educational, support and residential facility was built for children and young people with autism, their teachers and caretakers. After the Second World War, the site was used as a US barracks and, after their departure in the early 1990s, for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. The aim here is to develop a long-term development concept for a site that is historically and environmentally contaminated due to its use as a military training area.
The ‘social city’ connects with the existing facilities and forms an identity-creating central square as a spatial centre. The forum is also a meeting place between schoolchildren and users of the workshops for autistic people and neighbours from the neighbourhood.

Interim daycare centre
The new daycare centre offers bright, light-flooded rooms for two groups of 50 children each, spread over two floors. A small arcade leading to the central ‘forum’ forms a weather-protected entrance area and opens onto a compact vestibule. From here, a double staircase connects to the upper floor. Directly opposite the entrance door is the entrance to the group rooms on the ground floor.
A compact two-storey hall forms the spatial centre of the building. Daylight and fresh air enter the centre of the two levels through a skylight. The multi-purpose room and the main group rooms face south towards the garden, while the secondary group rooms face west. Service rooms, such as the staff rooms, kitchen and WC, face north. On the garden side, an external staircase, which also serves as an emergency staircase, provides swift access from the upper floor to the spacious garden of the new nursery.

School for children with early childhood autism, ‘Muschelkinder’
The weather-protected entrance to the Muschelkinder school is easy to find at the central forum. Immediately at the main entrance, visitors are greeted by views onto the school building’s green inner courtyard. A small, covered terrace forms the transition to the patio. The corridors follow the façade to the inner courtyard and, bathed in bright light, invite visitors to stay. One classroom, one group room and one therapy room are combined to form a learning cluster for seven pupils. A colourful niche marks the entrance to the cluster area from the corridor, while small viewing windows ensure transparency inside the building.