Shell for new building at Ernst Reuter School completed
05.09.2024
The new elementary school on the site of the Ernst Reuter School is expected to cost around 30.5 million euros. The municipal council has approved the calculated additional costs of almost 7 million euros, which have been audited by the auditing office, and passed them on to the city council for approval. The topping-out ceremony for the new building in the Rumpenheim district is due to take place shortly. The city will receive a subsidy of 674,450 euros from KfW for this construction project as well as a subsidized loan.
In future, the integrated comprehensive school (IGS) will be able to accommodate five pupils in its secondary section and three pupils in its primary section. In total, the city of Offenbach is creating around 200 new teaching places.
"Prices on the market for construction work that has already been awarded have risen unusually quickly. OPG, which is implementing the project on behalf of the city on a fiduciary basis, had to issue several invitations to tender, as either no bids were submitted - or these significantly exceeded the calculated costs," explains Paul-Gerhard-Weiß, Head of Planning and Construction.
In order to avoid an interruption to the construction work, some contracts had to be awarded well above the calculated budget. This included timber construction, building services and civil engineering work, for example.
According to the finalized plans, the floor slab and base layers had to be executed differently and supply lines had to be rerouted.
An additional photovoltaic system, bird protection measures and the maintenance of the green area on Bürgeler Straße, which was previously carried out by the sports clubs, were added to the project. The additional project content and work also increased the ancillary construction costs, and the elimination of an originally planned interim container meant that costs could be saved.
Around 850 pupils currently attend the Ernst Reuter School. Around 270 of them are taught at primary level. By moving the primary school to its own wing with modern, barrier-free classrooms and through smaller extensions and conversions to the main building, the IGS will be able to accommodate up to 1,050 children and young people from 2026.
Head of Planning and Construction Paul-Gerhard WeißThe expansion of the Ernst Reuter School is one of the larger school construction projects with which we are taking account of the dynamic population growth in Offenbach.
School as a living space
"As with other new school buildings in existing buildings, we are not only expanding the capacity of the Ernst Reuter School on the existing site while teaching continues, but we are also significantly upgrading the school location as a whole. At the same time, we are enabling the school to further develop the structures that have grown organically over the past ten years," explains Weiß. "We are not only fulfilling the required spatial program, but also creating a 'school living space' for the children and young people with well thought-out architecture and open space design, in which they feel comfortable and which promotes their development."
Background
Stadtwerke and its project development company OPG are responsible for the project management and control of the construction work. The project will be implemented in two construction phases in close coordination with the building construction management department of the Office for Planning and Construction as the client representative. The new primary school building should be ready for occupation in the summer vacations of 2025. The extensions and conversions to the existing building, together with the remaining open spaces, should be completed by 2026.
The new "heart" of the Ernst Reuter School, together with a new separate multi-purpose building, will be the central schoolyard at the center of all areas of use. As the new primary school building and the extensions to the existing building will take up part of the existing open space, the neighboring fallow land of a former tennis club will be incorporated into the school grounds to the west.
This will create an attractive play and sports landscape with a streetball court, table tennis and bicycle and scooter course, as well as seating walls, a 'green classroom' and school garden, divided into different play, exercise and retreat areas.
The three-storey, barrier-free primary school building with green monopitch roofs adjoins the main IGS building to the south. It is a hybrid construction combining timber frame construction and timber-concrete composite ceilings as well as a reinforced concrete floor slab, stairwells and elevator shaft. The upper floors rise above the first floor to create a covered break area.
Learning corridors and year clusters
The first floor will be available to the entire school community. This is where the all-day supervision, the school library and the art room will be located. The classrooms on the two upper floors are arranged as year clusters. Three classrooms per year group, including differentiation rooms, are grouped around a "learning corridor" equipped with seating platforms and steps. It can be used for games and meetings as well as for implementing new learning concepts.
A second staircase with an elevator is being created on the east side of the elementary school. This is followed by a two-storey connecting building to the main building. Together with the rooms in the southern part of the existing building, the classrooms and "learning corridors" created here will form a learning cluster for the fifth and sixth grades. Years seven to ten will continue to be taught in the northern part of the main building. More space for urgently needed classrooms will be created there, not only by moving the primary school branch, but also through a structural extension.
Multi-purpose building for events and cafeteria
In the redesigned schoolyard, a divisible multi-purpose room will be created as an oval solitaire, which will also house the existing music room. The event room with a mobile stage can be used by the entire school community and is connected to the main building via a foyer, but can also be accessed separately from the schoolyard.
In the area of the old main entrance to the assembly hall, the existing cafeteria will be extended and, with its new serving kitchen, will also offer meals to primary school children in future. The cafeteria and multi-purpose room are connected by a canopy with skylights. This creates an additional covered break area.
New classrooms for the secondary school branch will be created through minor alterations in the place of the old music room and in the area of the old assembly hall. The unused terrace on the second floor will be built over. A new IT room will also be set up there.
Geothermal energy and photovoltaics
When constructing the new primary school building, the city of Offenbach is paying attention to climate protection and sustainable energy supply. The new school building will comply with the "Efficiency Building 40" standard of the German Building Energy Act (GEG), meaning that at least 50 percent of its heating requirements will be covered by renewable energies, explains Andrés Bäppler, project manager from the city's building construction management department.
Thanks to the use of a new geothermal system, the house will be largely independent of the existing gas heating system. Decentralized, mechanical ventilation units with highly efficient heat recovery are integrated into the façades, which are designed in accordance with the GEG standard. The microclimate will be improved by the extensive greening of the elementary school's roof surfaces and a photovoltaic system will contribute to the power supply.