Josef-Schwarz-Schule Campus

Germany’s educational system is admired for its pedagogic rigor, but its public schools are tightly regulated, with a uniform curriculum and similar physical layouts. That inspired an educational foundation established by Dieter Schwarz, former CEO of the Schwarz Group, to take a fresh approach. The Schwarz Foundation already provided day care for the group’s employees and funding for the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, but it was the success of a small suburban school it had sponsored that prompted its latest, most ambitious venture. Named for Dieter’s father, who founded the group in 1930, Josef-Schwarz-Schule is located in the
south-western German city of Heilbronn. It aspires to be one of the most innovative and progressive schools in the country.

Behnisch Architekturbüro won the competition with a highly original concept for a linear site in the new urban development of Neckarbogen, which replaces warehouses and a former loading dock beside the Neckar River. The district is densely built up with five-story blocks, so the architectural team, headed by Florian Waller, elevated the school on a steel-reinforced concrete platform. That provides protected recreational space for 1,200 students in the 55,000 sq. m complex. The auditorium, sport halls, administrative offices, parking and entry foyer are located beneath the platform together with a family clinic and café to link the school to the community. Rail lines flank the site and the architects assumed that it would require a wall to block noise, but acoustic tests proved this to be unnecessary.

Only six weeks were allowed for the preparation of entries to the competition, but Behnisch was able to draw on its experience of designing more than 20 public schools. Waller and his team found inspiration in Scandinavia for their design: a multi-level complex of spaces in a wide range of sizes, with an emphasis on openness and transparency. The restraint of...

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