Creating and maintaining contemporary educational infrastructures that meet demands

Guidelines for efficient school buildings in Germany

Expertengespräch © Simon Schnepp
Erweiterung eines denkmalgeschützten Schulgebäudes in Dänemark, Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter © Dirk E. Haas

The guidelines for efficient school buildings in Germany are the result of a multi-stage process which was started in 2010 by the Montag Stiftungen (Montag Foundations) and the Association of German Architects. In addition, the Association for Education and Training has co-edited the publication; the research work received financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. From the beginning to the end, school, planning, administration, and science experts, as well as representatives of municipal umbrella organisations, were involved in the process of creating and evaluating the guidelines. The intention is for the guidelines to provide support to all parties involved in school construction in order to create and maintain contemporary educational infrastructures in their municipalities and districts that meet demands. The guidelines not only describe the principles and specify the quality standards of good school buildings based on international experience, but also expressly emphasise the great importance of design and construction processes. The municipalities were very keen to ensure that the guidelines adequately reflect the local conditions, which can be very diverse; on the other hand, it was important to them that reliable guide values be stated for the quantitative aspects of school construction.

This project was presented at the 2014 Baukultur Workshop.

Uses Public construction
Planning culture
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