The studios Sulitze Muñoz Arquitectos and Magén Arquitectos introduced a single-storey volume to unify the two volumes that correspond to the uses of classroom and pavilion, turning the building into a sculptural ensemble. The rectangular primary school has its programme distributed over three floors and is located on the edge of the plot. The volume of the pavilion moves away from the edge of the street, turning with respect to the axis of the school, creating a plaza that acts as the main access to the buildings and exterior spaces of the project.
For the school building, the colour black is used on the ground floor, differentiating it from the rest of the white-grey brick façade. The façades of the school are structured thanks to the large windows projected in grouped horizontal bands that adapt to the interior uses. The façades of the pavilion use the same brick cladding as in the school, introducing a zinc sheet cladding in the upper area.
Havel primary school by Sulitze Muñoz Arquitectos + Magén Arquitectos. Photograph by Tjark Spille.
Project description by Sulitze Muñoz Arquitectos + Magén Arquitectos
The inclusive primary school with sports hall is located at the intersection of Goltzstrasse and Mertensstrasse in the Hakenfelde district of Spandau, Berlin. This is an area with industrial uses and canals close to the Havel river, with industrial uses. Recently, an urban project called “Wasserstadt Berlin-Oberhavel” was developed, which sought to combine residential and mixed use as well as public facilities. The project develops a Line 4 primary school – with 1st to 6th grades – with integration of inclusive special education students; a Sports Hall, which can be used independently of the school; and the urbanization of outdoor spaces. The built volume is concentrated on the west side of the plot, developing along Goltzstrasse, thus creating a large open playground inside the plot, protected from the street. The building is designed as a continuous building, although divided into two volumes, corresponding to the classroom and sports hall uses, articulated by the porch and the entrance hall.
The volume of the primary school is designed as a three-storey, essentially rectangular building, located directly along the edge of the Goltzstrasse building and occupying the urban space. The smaller volume of the sports hall is also rectangular, but it is set back from the street and rotates in relation to the school, creating an open square facing the street where the main entrances and access routes to the buildings and the exterior spaces of the school are located. The rotation of the sports hall reflects the directional references existing in the surroundings: the Maselake Canal, the layout of Mertensstrasse and the green areas of the Pepitahöfe residential area. The new square, acting as a hinge between both public spaces, links the green area located at the end of the canal with the boulevard of the residential area.
The volumes of the sports hall and the school are connected by a single-storey volume that mediates between the different spatial references and transforms the mass of the building into a cubic sculptural ensemble. The rotundity of the building's volume is accentuated by the white-grey facing bricks. The plinth of the school building is distinguished from the rest of the Klinker façade by its anthracite black colour and by the relief in the form of horizontal brick bands.
The façade of the classroom building is structured by the large-format windows of the classrooms, which are strictly modular, subdivided vertically and whose format can also be easily adapted to other uses (administration, staff room, etc.). Along the longitudinal façades, these windows project in grouped horizontal bands.
In the stairwell area, the Klinker cladding continues in the form of a lattice in front of the windows. The same white-grey brick cladding as on the upper floors of the school was used on the base of the sports hall, while zinc sheet cladding was used on the upper part of the hall.
