As part of Berlin's school construction initiative, comprehensive measures to renovate old school buildings and construct new schools have been underway since 2015. The NAK (Numrich Albrecht Klump) architectural firm made a further contribution to alleviating the school crisis with its school building in Nordhafen. NAK has already completed more than a dozen schools in Berlin and other locations. This new building is a primary school in Mitte. The architects won first prize in the "Schule an der Europacity" design competition in 2017. The new six-storey building was completed in autumn 2022. It stands on the historic building line at the corner of Chaussestraße and Boyenstraße. Hardly anything remains of the Nordhafen that gave the building its name. The inner-city Nordhafen was located at the intersection of the Mitte, Moabit and Wedding districts. Due to its location near the sector border, operations were discontinued in East Berlin in 1952 and soon afterwards in the western part of the city as well. The striking unique feature of this school building is the stacking of functions. To save space, the gymnasium was placed on top of the classroom floors, so that the fifth and sixth floors are dedicated to sports. This leaves more space on the grounds for the schoolyard and outdoor activities. Of the remaining four floors, two have a uniform façade, but differ fundamentally from each other. While the ground floor and first floor are characterised by wide, rectangular window openings, the third and fourth floors are highlighted with coloured, vertical aluminium slats. The two sports floors, on the other hand, are only marked on the outside by a ribbon of windows with small openings. The ground floor and first floor house the canteen and specialist classrooms, as well as the school administration and staff room. A centrally located staircase in a friendly yellow connects the two other floors, which are used for teaching. The artist Jorn Ebner contributed to the building's art in the form of a glass wall and room installation. The classrooms are arranged in clusters around so-called forums, which corresponds to the current standard in school pedagogy. The triple sports hall, changing rooms and ancillary rooms can also be accessed via a separate staircase, allowing sporting activities to take place even on days when school is not in session. The four-stream "Schule am Nordhafen" has space for 575 pupils.

www.nak-architekten.de

Photography Credits:

Adel Bikulo
www.fzwanzig.com

(Featured in CUBE Berlin 03|23)