A modular wooden school by architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) has topped out in Frankfurt, Germany. Designed for the Miquelallee school center, the project is made using prefabricated wood modules as a temporary structure for two schools. With a steadily growing population, the need for new school buildings has risen sharply in Frankfurt am Main. The design concept was made so that the modular building can be dismantled and rebuilt at another location as needed.
As gmp notes, Frankfurt relies on modular construction for expeditious and high-quality solutions that can reduce construction time by up to 60 percent compared to conventional building methods. The topping-out ceremony for the Miquelallee school center was held at the construction site in Frankfurt’s Westend. School operations are poised to start for the 2019/20 school year after a period of just 24 months for planning and implementation. The Adorno Gymnasium and the Holzhausenschule – an academic high school and an elementary school, respectively – will jointly occupy the facility, which is currently being assembled from roughly 350 prefabricated elements using modular wood construction.
The high school is located in the western part of the symmetrically designed complex, and the elementary school is in the eastern part. Both schools share the administrative offices on the ground floor of the building’s middle wing. The entrances at the northern corners of the building lead to the main circulation spine, which connects all the functional areas. The building is expected to be used as the schools’ temporary quarters for five to ten years, until their permanent location at the Westend school campus is completed. The high school and the elementary school are consolidated in a three-story building with two internal courtyards for school recess activities. Although conceived for temporary use, the building meets high energy standards: its consumption lies 30 percent below the values prescribed by the current Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV).
All classrooms are oriented to the quiet sides of the campus to the west and east, and especially to the landscaped courtyards, which individually form the spatial centers of the two schools and open outward to the south at the ground floor level. The school building’s wood material gives it a natural appearance, which is complemented on the inside by colored floors that vary from floor to floor, thus facilitating orientation and promoting pupils’ identification with their part of the building.
Design Volkwin Marg and Hubert Nienhoff with Bernd Gossmann and Markus Pfisterer
Project leader Bernd Gossmann, Markus Pfisterer
Design team Martin Hakiel, Kseniia Riabchenko, Stefan Both, Meiyan Wong, Dina Fahim, Haian Zouabi, Eleonora La Mantia, Elvira Perfetto, Anna Bogucka, Mohammed El Soudani, Sophie-Charlotte Altrock
Module construction company ERNE AG Holzbau, Laufenburg, Switzerland
Structural engineering/Building physics Werner Sobek Frankfurt
MEP engineering WPW, Saarbrücken
Fire protection Wagner Zeitter Bauingenieure, Wiesbaden
Landscape design Pfrommer + Röder, Stuttgart
Client Municipality of Frankfurt am Main
News via gmp Architects
