WAL / Waldau Terraces

 

The OSW secondary school in Kassel, provides a progressive education, organized around clusters and saving a large part of the children’s planning for free and independent learning. Located in the neighborhood of Waldau, at the edge of the city, the new building follows a clear organization: the groundfloor hosts the classrooms and enables direct connections to outdoor learning spaces, the building folds itself in a U-shape generating a more private space for the inner courtyard, while letting it extend on the roof level as a landscape of terraces. The building’s volume is completed by two prolongations, one bridging towards the existing Sports hall and the other elevating itself to host a public library.
The old school facility, instead of being destroyed, is partly dismantled and arranged to host outdoor sport and leisure activities. The two small existing pavilions become play fields and the main building a multipurpose complex for markets, workshops spaces and urban farming.