Schöpflin primary school, Lörrach | Germany

The school building for the Schöpflin primary school in Lörrach was built by alma maki Architektur & Innenausbau from Basel in a timber frame system and contributes to the special teaching concept of the school with its unusual architecture. The rooms are not rectangular but in a honeycomb shape. They use a special pedagogy in the Schöpflin school. This has the goal of guiding the children in the best possible way in the development of their personal potential. Alongside a distinctive relationship and participation culture, the relationship with art and culture and topics of sustainability play a central role.

For the 2021/2022 school year, the Schöpflin foundation, as the responsible body, opened the eponymous Schöpflin school as an inclusive, full-time school in Lörrach-Brombach in a temporary building. In parallel, the construction of the school building directly adjacent on part of the previous Reiss mill site was started. In September 2022, the first 45 children moved into the new school building, and since the beginning of the 2023 school year, three classes now use the building with around 60 children. The final completion for 100 pupils and 10 teachers is planned for 2025.

Meik Rehrmann, founder and manager of alma maki explains: "we took a look at the pedagogical concept of the school and were also invited to the partner school in the starting phase, the Peter-Gläsel school in Detmold, and wanted to create spaces correspondingly free of hierarchical elements where maximum flexibility and learning among equals are possible.“ A school complex was created consisting of three single-storey buildings each in a honeycomb shape - – a teaching building, a multi-use building and one for the administration. The unusual, six-sided pattern creates interesting spaces inside and also outside between the buildings. A so-called learning landscape is formed that is characterised by many different functional levels. "Alongside the rooms with allocated uses, various intermediate areas have arisen as spatial extensions, communication locations or places to retreat to. These include the internal corridors but also the area around the outside, with recesses offering a place to stay under cover outside", explain the planners.

The school building in wood is built to a large extent such that the structure of floors, ceilings and walls can be separated into the individual elements in the case of demolition. To enable easy construction, the electrical switches and sockets are installed surface-mounted – here the LS CUBE range in black was used. Dimmers, push-buttons and sockets are there including cable conduits, which lead out from the ceiling or floor and are arranged visibly over the plaster. The decision for the colour black on a white surface is a statement for honest and authentic building. There is nothing unnecessary here, and nothing is hidden. 

The same applies as well for the open areas of the school, where only the pathways are sealed. Otherwise it consists of porous paving or green surfaces, also including drainage channels that visibly take away the water from the roofs and allow flat watercourses to appear on the property when it rains. An unusual educational building has been built in Lörrach that creates the fitting framework for an alternative learning concept with unfamiliar room situations.