Extension of the Steiner-School Villingen-Schwenningen

Extension of the Steiner-School Villingen-Schwenningen, 2006

Designing private schools, particularly Waldorf schools, has the advantage that matters of design claim a prominent position. Here, awareness of the effects of architecture means that aesthetic values play a large role. In contrast to this is the lack of money from which these facilities suffer. In large part, the buildings are financed by the parents’ private funds and come in at the bottom end of possible building costs. This means the gap between aspiration and reality, between free choice and necessity in construction, often leads architects onto thin ice. Constantly weighing the costs and having intense discussions until late at night are part of the usual routine with these exciting projects.

An existing school in Villingen-Schwenningen was to be extended. A hall for events, a classroom, an after school care centre and a dining room with a kitchen were all on the programme. Many schools like this are built using a stereotypical vocabulary of forms without any deeper significance. To avoid this, we pursued an independent sculptural approach that we developed completely out of the local situation. Folds in the roof were produced by a rising and falling assemblage of transverse beams suggestive of the topography of the surroundings. This structural form defines the interior as much as the coloured glass set in front of the windows, which saved the expense of painting the interior in various colours.

Unfortunately, the compromises required by looking for inexpensive solutions are incomprehensible for subsequent generations of parents. They cannot see the reasons for the low standards.

Client:
Förderverein für Waldorfpädagogik, Villingen-Schwenningen

Architects:
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei, Stuttgart

Team:
Stefanie Lempart, Eva Caspar, Beatrice Mertins

Structural Engineering:
Ing. Büro Schaaf, Hüfingen

Competition:
2002 – 1st prize

Construction period:
2004 – 2006

Gross floor area:
1,862,02 square meters

BRI:
9,404,37 cubic meters

Location:
Schluchseestraße 55, 78054 Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany

Awards
Unipor-Architekturpreis (1st prize) 2006

Publications
Lederer, Arno / Ragnarsdóttir, Jórunn / Oei, Marc (Hg.):
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei 1.
Jovis Verlag Berlin 2012

Malerblatt
1 | 2008