The comprehensive school in Neuss-Norf has been given a compact extension with a canteen to accommodate the growing number of pupils and the expansion of the school's curriculum. Werkgemeinschaft Quasten-Mundt Architekten from Grevenbroich planned and implemented a compact three-storey building on Feuerbachweg, which bundles the various functions and optimizes the necessary space and area requirements. 

The new building is connected to the existing school buildings via a connecting corridor and picks up on the clinker brick façade of the existing building as an identity-forming and particularly durable and resistant element. The façade is deliberately structured as a perforated façade, the windows of which are particularly emphasized by a surrounding, colour-accentuated frame. The window fronts of the foyer and canteen are set apart from this: a fully glazed mullion and transom construction ensures the greatest possible incidence of light in these areas. The stairwells can also be seen through their vertical window strip on the façade. The first floor of the building houses the canteen with kitchen area, the central foyer, an upper school recreation room, classrooms for music and art as well as sanitary facilities and various storage, technical and ancillary rooms. The canteen is directly connected to the central entrance hall with toilets and a kiosk, which can also be used as a bar. This also allows it to be used for extracurricular club events in the evenings. Mobile partition walls can be used to flexibly separate a section of the canteen for another differentiation room. Each room unit has direct access to the outdoor area. In the event of an event, the fixed part of the existing stage platform can be supplemented by a mobile part. There is also a classroom wing on the first floor, which is divided into two art rooms and two music rooms - with the corresponding ancillary room program, a control room and a stage access room. The first and second floors offer sufficient space for the twelve classrooms of two year groups plus all differentiation rooms, teachers' offices, sanitary facilities and ancillary rooms. The rooms on both floors are accessed via a surrounding corridor, which is lit via the two-storey atrium. The extra-wide corridors in the classroom wing on both floors are naturally lit by the recessed strip lighting. The changing widths of the corridors are particularly characteristic of the sequence of rooms due to the specially accentuated seating niches and study booths.

www.quasten-mundt.de

Photos: 

Matthias Michel
www.fotograf-matthias-michel.de

Thorsten Wankum

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 03|23)