The new “Otto Schott Campus” is not only the address of the new Otto Schott Comprehensive School; it also connects several educational institutions, including the Berufskolleg Witten, the district sports hall and the Viehmarkthalle.
The new school building on the campus establishes a strong presence within the public realm despite the sports halls positioned on either side. The head building with the main entrance facing the campus is accentuated by an elevated volume. Functions arranged around the main entrance activate the public space beyond school hours. A generously covered entrance area leads directly into the heart of the school – a central space for community, events, exhibitions and assemblies.
Within the creative courtyard, the cafeteria garden and the sheltered schoolyard, mixed groves of trees (“climate groves”) with accessible green areas create protected settings for different uses. Main level changes are articulated through planted seating steps. The varying heights of the learning houses and the central building respond to the surrounding context: the central volume steps down to the north towards the small-scale residential development (II); the learning houses of the secondary level align with the taller structures of the Berufskolleg Witten; and the learning house of the upper secondary level marks its presence in the public space and at the campus entrance with its height
The guiding principle is that of a “learning landscape”: a spatial structure that is as open as possible, offering more diverse and better uses than conventional school layouts. The school’s centre forms an attractive communal hub, where a generous stepped seating landscape connects the two “public”, jointly used floors. Functions such as administrative offices, specialist classrooms, cafeteria and all-day facilities are arranged around this core. The upper three storeys accommodate the more private learning studios for lower and upper secondary levels. Each learning studio is organised as a continuous spatial cluster, with an open multifunctional area at its centre for informal lingering and small-group learning. External stairs from the learning terraces lead to the ground-level outdoor areas. The upper secondary level additionally benefits from a rooftop garden for study and breaks.
The construction is based on a consistent structural grid with a limited number of repeating components, designed for serial prefabrication and high cost-efficiency. The load-bearing structure is conceived as a prefabricated timber-steel skeleton. The central design idea for the new Otto Schott Comprehensive School is a “shelf” (skeleton) structure that can be flexibly adapted and reprogrammed. With only a few shear walls or stiffening cores, future changes of use can be implemented without constraint. The timber-steel skeleton ensures the building’s long-term adaptability. The connections between columns and beams are designed as Gerber beam systems that can literally be hung into place.
