Wilnsdorf Primary School and Sports Hall
The municipality of Wilnsdorf runs primary schools at several locations that no longer meet current educational requirements or the growing demand for space. Two of the municipality’s four primary schools are now being merged at the Höhwäldchen site. Given the extensive woodland and the limited budget of the small municipality, the competition entry proposed the most compact volume possible, set into the slope along the contour lines. The building has two storeys on the uphill side and three towards the valley. The forest to the south and east remains untouched and reaches right up to the building. To the west, a clearing accommodates the outdoor areas, while to the north the school forms a small campus together with the neighbouring daycare centre.
The school is entered from the uphill side through the foyer, which is used efficiently for several purposes as an after-school care area and canteen. The central scissor staircase sits in a void lit by a rooflight and connects the floors. The learning clusters are arranged identically around the central stair. Classrooms are grouped around a shared centre with spaces for differentiated learning, inclusion and a team room. Despite the spatial density, the learning clusters do without conventional corridors and offer a wide range of views: towards the forest, into the forest, across the hills or down into the valley and the village.
The structure is not imposed on the building but serves as a design tool. From the competition stage onwards, the school was conceived as a strictly gridded skeleton structure. The structure changes from bottom to top: on the lower ground floor, the elements in contact with the ground are made of reinforced concrete. On the ground floor, the wish of local politicians to involve the many precast concrete plants in the region was accommodated: long-span double-tee slabs rest on timber columns. The external walls are timber stud walls with blown-in and wood-fibre insulation.
While timber takes on the role of columns and non-load-bearing elements on the lower levels, this is reversed on the upper floor: the primary structure is a timber skeleton of columns, beams and ribbed slabs, with the bracing cross walls in reinforced concrete. The structure remains exposed and thus visible to the children. Fit-out and building services are additive and can be replaced at the end of their service life.
The starting point was the compactness of the building and the aim of using as much timber as possible while reducing the amount of concrete. For certain components, recycled material from the Rinsdorf viaduct, demolished during the planning phase, was used. Ribbed slabs reduce the amount of concrete and cement by about a third compared with a flat slab. Screwed timber connections allow for reversible dismantling.
Petroleum-based products were avoided wherever possible for insulation and surfaces. Around 90% of the timber fittings have a plant-based coating. The layering of primary structure, fit-out and services allows for easy dismantling and the later reuse of components.
The landscape design takes up the topography of the Siegerland region. Play and activity areas are spread over several levels, linking paved zones with near-natural areas. The forest thus becomes part of the children’s learning and living environment.
Wilnsdorf Primary School is an investment in the development of the village and its young people. It is a modest but highly optimistic commitment to the future, and a project that, despite all its challenges, was shaped above all by the good collaboration between everyone involved.
