Lifelong Learning - Peter Hubner 's design for a school at Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck

Architectural Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Peter Blundell Jones

Classroom blocks are being added as a series of side wings away from this central spine. Their design and construction is more radical, involving teachers and pupils directly. They take the form of free-standing pavilions like terraces of houses, added progressively as classes move over. Initially only two groups of five were built, but two more groups were completed in 2000 and a further two have just been planned. They are being designed by their future inhabitants for Hubner has involved the children in planning, modelling and construction. The architects work up initial proposals based on the children's ideas and after discussion and adjustment of the design, the children build precise models based on the architects' drawings. Further work by the architects takes the designs through the necessary bureaucratic stages and the basic structures are then erected by contractors. Much of the subsequent fitting-out and finishing is done by teachers, pupils and parents.

Hubner has enjoyed the enthusiastic cooperation of the school's director Rainer Winkel. The author of many books on educational theory, he relished the chance to put his progressive ideas into practice. These are based on learning by doing, extending the ideas of Dewey and Montessori, and introducing academic subjects through practical projects. Encouraging pupils to participate in the design and construction of their classrooms reinforces this ethos. Because social problems are so severe, with poverty, broken homes, alcohol and drugs, many children lack a stable background and this must be addressed by the school. Children are therefore assigned to classes which occupy the same classroom-home for six years led by the same teachers who act as surrogate parents. With 30 per cent of children Muslim and 25 per cent Catholic, mutual understanding and tolerance is also a high priority; though the school is based on Christian values, it is open to other faiths and concerned to accommodate them. Beyond its educatio nal aims, the school forms part of the wider community and is usable by local people around the clock. The theatre is equipped for all kinds of productions, lectures, or film evenings, and there is space for a disco in its basement.

Hubner's architecture has long followed a familiar formula: insulated concrete foundations topped by lightweight construction in timber frame, calculated and cut to size by computer. Wood is an easily worked, renewable resource, and as frame and studwork, flexible enough to absorb the varied shapes and sizes suggested by the participative design process. Roofs can be flat or gently angular, protected by a membrane, then covered in soil for growing plants. Walls can be clad in various ways, but usually in timber boarding, with windows inserted as necessary. The addition of thick insulation and judicious use of glazing renders the buildings thermally efficient, and classroom daylighting is usually a more pressing concern than heating, as a roomful of children produces kilowatts of energy.