Reconstruction of the school campus Bockmühle

An open campus and a new park for the Altendorf district

The reconstruction of the Bockmühle campus in the Altendorf district is an opportunity for the City of Essen to acquire a new multi-purpose school facility combining teaching spaces with sports and cultural facilities open to the community. It is also a way of restructuring the whole of this part of the city around a unifying facility. We imagined three buildings that structure the site by delimiting two large green spaces: a new park open to the city to the east and a generous schoolyard planted in the heart of the newly created block. Gaps between the buildings ensure the complete porosity of the site, as the schoolyard is not enclosed. While the ground floor houses programmes intended for all inhabitants (libraries, community spaces, multi-purpose rooms), the upper floors are dedicated to teaching spaces, designed as large flexible floors surrounded by balconies and planted terraces. Each class thus has numerous spaces conducive to cross-curricular and decompartmentalised teaching (outdoor activities, inter-grade exchanges, etc.). The evacuation staircases are externalized and make it possible to multiply the possible circulation routes. The project thus becomes a real pedagogical tool for rich and stimulating teaching.

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The new park is a key element in the transformation of the neighbourhood. The campus addresses this space through programmes open to all its inhabitants: community space, café, sports center and library. The school is no longer a facility closed in on itself and with use limited to school hours, but a common service, democratic and accessible to all.

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The division of the project into three entities allows for porosity between the interior playground of the campus and the park. This functional and visual fluidity is accentuated by the public character of the programmes installed in a largely transparent ground floor. 

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Large terraces, designed as extensions of the classrooms, surround the buildings. Directly connected to the courtyard by means of external vertical circulation, these educational spaces are designed for a variety of uses. Supported by plants, they offer a green continuity from the park to the roof.

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Location

Essen, Germany

Client

City of Essen

Area

42,599 m² and 59,611 m² landscape

Team

ChartierDalix (landscape), Urbane Gestalt (landscape), Imagine Structure, ZWP Ingénierie

Associate architects

inFabric

Cost

€68 M before tax

Phase

Study phase, delivery in 2028, 1st place invited competition

Project manager

Mickael Hassani, Iris Maass

Mission

Complète

Program

Secondary and high school for 1300 pupils, sport hall, refectory, multi-purpose space, administration, youth center, urban park with sport facilities

Certification

BNB Silber, HQE approach for the sport complex

Images

ChartierDalix