WDG Wuppertal
Project Description
Renovation / Conversion WDG-GYM
The existing buildings from the 1950s to 1970s were completely gutted, extensively renovated, restructured, and slightly extended with new building sections. The facade was clad with fiber cement panels, matching the color of the natural stone facades of the surrounding buildings. Consistent energy optimization achieved nearly passive house quality.
The Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium is the first of five pilot projects in the competition “Planning and Building Schools” to be structurally completed. The planning phase was preceded by an intensive “Phase Zero”, whose content and implementation were supported by the Montag Stiftung Jugend und Gesellschaft during subsequent planning stages.
Following careful observation, workshops, meetings, and study trips during “Phase Zero”, the insights gained were incorporated into the planning process. As a result, the long corridors of the school building were transformed into valuable usable space.
For the lower secondary level, year-group-specific clusters were created with classrooms, self-study zones, communication, break, and movement areas – serving as flexibly usable learning landscapes.
The upper secondary level, however, received seminar rooms of various sizes with flexible furnishings, while various specialized rooms were merged into a common science cluster. A new connecting piece between the building sections, the “common center”, was created, which includes the main entrance and a spacious lounge and cafeteria area.
An important component of the concept is breaking up the school’s isolated island location and connecting it to the neighborhood. Thus, the school’s basement opens with generous glass fronts to the north of “Elberfelder City”. In this basement, a multi-purpose room with associated ancillary rooms has been created, which is also accessible for extracurricular uses via additional access routes and a separate entrance area, and accommodates a variety of neighborhood activities.
The eastern outdoor area is available to the district for various uses. The school is connected to the city center through the public square and schoolyard. With its generous seating elements, the square becomes an inviting place for lingering and meeting in the neighborhood.
