The new cafeteria, serving as a central shared facility for the existing schools in Derendingen, rises on top of the existing underground car park on Primus-Truber-Strasse. It forms the new campus centre and is easily recognisable from a distance due to the elevated information and media area with a library on the upper floor. All students from the three schools access the cafeteria building from both the north and south via two spacious outdoor stairways leading up to the terrace. This design prevents conflicts with the entrances and exits of the underground car park. A new square at the bend of Primus-Truber-Strasse connects all incoming pathways with the new school building, creating a welcoming entrance together with the existing kindergarten and youth centre.
The addition of new storeys to the existing underground car park remedies ad improves the current unsatisfactory urban situation. The new building is designed as an elongated structure, fully integrating the underground car park, half of which protrudes from the ground. The new volume shapes the space and creates generous open areas for a vibrant new centre of the three schools. The publicly accessible terrace level connects Primus-Truber-Strasse with the landscape of the Steinlach stream, while also considering the existing kindergarten.
The general teaching area is directly connected to the cafeteria and information area as an independent part of the building. It extends to the east across the entire length of the underground car park and ends at the learning centre (Lernhaus) at the Steinlach stream. Here, eight classrooms are organised in clusters over two floors, centred around a well-lit common area. In the connecting building between the cafeteria and the learning centre, the teachers’ area serves as a central contact point and is therefore located directly at the ground floor entrance. Workspaces for students and teachers are lined up along the façade in front of the specialised classrooms on the first floor, easily accessible to all.
The aim is to achieve a building that meets the future European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and complies with the current KfW 55 standard. Our concept is based on a very low heating energy demand, an electricity-saving concept and compensating the electricity demand through the use of photovoltaics installed on top of the building. Along with the biomass heating provided by the existing wood chip heating plant, this approach achieves a nearly CO2-free energy supply for the building. The newly integrated buffer storage in the building is directly supplied with heat from the combined heat and power plant via a local heating line.
The supporting structure on top of the existing underground car park is designed as a lightweight construction using timber or as a timber-concrete composite construction (providing fire protection for building class 5 and thermal mass for heat insulation in summer).