Multicultural Protestant Comprehensive School

Gelsenkirchen Bismarck

A central building block in the revitalisation of the Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck district is the Evangelische Gesamtschule [Protestant Comprehensive School]. The architecture of the multicultural district school was made subject to a competition by the city, the Evangelische Kirche Westfalen and by IBA Emscher Park with a limited number of invitations to a pool of international candidates.

The winning concept was submitted by the Neckartenzlingen architecture firm plus + von Prof. Peter Hübner who implemented a multi-stage development in which students and teachers realised their school in a span of five years. The students not only theoretically conceptualised their model school, they also participated in the creation of the first completed main building of the school. Energy considerations were important criteria in the construction of the building. The orientation of the classrooms was also a central theme. The use of passive solar energy and natural buoyancy energy eliminated the need for mechanical ventilation.

The school is designed like a city. It is composed of many small parts, individually designed buildings, a main house and six classroom buildings. The elements of the three-storey main building emanate from a covered ‘street’ that acts as the central thoroughfare: here you will find a ’kiosk’ with a ’street café’. Next to the ’library’ and ’chapel’ is the ’city hall’ (the office and headmaster), across from the ’tavern’ (cafeteria) and the ’theatre’ (auditorium). A bit further on are the ’cinema’ and the ’laboratory’ (lab), the ’pharmacy’ (chemistry) and the ’studio’ (art). In a separate and round one-storey building, you will find the workshops.

Six classroom buildings line the main house, three on the east side and three on west. The successive, future buildings for a given year are situated in a row and represent construction stages. Each class has its own two-storey building with a garden. Each incoming grade five co-designed their house and is responsible for the upkeep of the house and its garden for the duration of their schooling. By now, around 1,500 university-track students attend the comprehensive school. The school sees itself as a family, educational, life and district school that is closely linked with the neighbourhood and makes an important contribution to the development of Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck. The successful approach of the ’district school’ is currently being applied at other comprehensive schools in Gelsenkirchen as part of efforts at district development.