An impressive new building for primary school pupils in Berlin

In Berlin’s Mitte district, a six-storey building with an impressive façade and a sports hall on the top floors demonstrates how modern architecture can help give an urban space a fresh new makeover.

Building projects in big cities are often limited in terms of space, so developers have to think that bit more creatively. One example is the architectural firm Numrich Albrecht Klumpp Architekten from Berlin, which has built an impressive new primary school building – complete with a canteen and a sports hall – on behalf of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing in Berlin’s Mitte district. This six-storey standalone structure epitomises the look and feel of the city’s new Europacity quarter.

A façade designed to reflect the building’s multiple uses

With its elegant, compact form, the fully accessible building contains 7,500 square meters of floor space and blends harmoniously into the surrounding architecture on Chausseestraße and Boyenstraße. Its impressive façade design makes the building’s multipurpose nature clear for all to see. The two middle floors, for example, house classrooms for almost 600 school children and are clad in coloured aluminium slats, presenting a clear contrast to the reinforced concrete façades of the levels above and below. 

The lower floors, which are linked to an existing building by a glazed connecting bridge, are home to the canteen, specialist teaching spaces and administrative offices. The multipurpose sports hall is located on the upper floors and is also open to users from outside the school.

Open, inviting and natural

The four light-filled, open-plan floors of the school part of the building are connected by a central staircase with a half-landing. The most striking feature here is a hanging installation by Jorn Ebner, made from colourful glass elements that look as if they are dripping down from the ceiling. Yellow door frames and skirting boards stand out against the light walls and floors and the wooden window frames and sills. The inviting and natural atmosphere of this modern new building is also highlighted by Troldtekt acoustic panels in the colour natural wood, which have been installed in the wide hallways, the large entrance hall, the staircase and the spacious canteen.