Located between Neukölln and Rudow, more precisely between Lipschitzallee and Efeuweg, stands one of Berlin's largest school construction projects of the past two decades: the Lise Meitner Upper Secondary Center with a gross floor area of 20,000 m² serving approximately 1,100 students. This is no ordinary gymnasium, but rather a highly specialized vocational school dedicated exclusively to upper-level instruction in biology, chemistry, and physics. Named after the nuclear physicist Lise Meitner, it continues the legacy of its predecessor building on the same site.

Among the renowned architectural firms competing in the competition, the comparatively small Berlin-based office NAK – Numrich, Albrecht, Klumpp – which specializes in school construction, among other things, won first prize. The jury's verdict clearly favored this design because it demonstrates forward-thinking approaches for educational facilities that break free from the perpetual repetition of conventional school building typologies. Rather than the typical arrangement of single-story structures that are neither space-efficient nor logistically well-organized, the architects pursued a bold new concept: a compact, six-story square building where circulation patterns and spatial divisions are efficiently organized along short routes. A generous sculptural staircase functions like a "promenade architecturale," ascending through all six floors. The broad staircase, which on the ground floor serves as an event space and gathering area offering diverse opportunities for interaction, opens into a two-story atrium on the first floor—an open volume containing a flight of stairs to the next level. This spatial void repeats throughout the upper floors, each rotated 90 degrees.

Beyond classrooms and common areas, the fourth through sixth floors feature laboratory spaces equipped with the latest technology and outdoor experimental areas on the roof terrace. Both the tall, narrow windows and the vertical pilasters create a facade that appears slender and almost delicate. In each cardinal direction, where the staircase reaches the perimeter, a loggia provides access to the outdoors. The concept of upper secondary centers that integrate practice and theory is not new, but what makes this building exceptional is how its architecture spatially translates current developments in science education. Unlike the previous building, the architects deliberately chose to emphasize the interconnections between physics, chemistry, and biology. The continuous communication space links the different science departments across floors and provides central gathering points for exchange and informal learning.

www.nak-architekten.de

(Published in CUBE Berlin 02|20)