The master plan for the Education Campus West develops a dense, urban campus structure along the banks of the Neckar with high goals for sustainable development, modern infrastructure, high-quality architecture, and green urban spaces as well as human scale. In the north-western part of the campus, a building-row structure is planned to face the Neckar, which the design continues and extends with two site-defining tall buildings.
Various forms of student housing, an educators' academy (EAH), a research facility (IZB) and a campus daycare centre are closely interwoven here, all with reference to green open spaces and social meeting points. Together they form an integrated urban building block that presents a two-story, green wooden structure with public ground floor uses as a base towards the campus. Inwards, the base floors are organized into loops around organically shaped green courtyards that form dynamic spaces with a relationship to the surrounding public spaces on the banks of the Neckar.
Student housing includes a mixture of communal accommodation, where amenities are shared, and student apartments with their own bathroom and kitchen to meet the different needs of the modern student body. Shared laundry and work rooms as well as attractive kitchens and common rooms for the shared accommodation promote social life.
At the centre of the complex is the academy, which offers an enriching learning environment around a connecting courtyard with urban gardening and connects to the campus with a very open ground floor. Classrooms, group areas and administration are furnished with plenty of daylight and an inviting and communal atmosphere. The structure allows for later conversion of administration into teaching areas and vice versa.
Nestled between the residential buildings and the academy is the kindergarten with modern group rooms and play areas, organized on two floors as a "doughnut" around a protected courtyard. Inside, two market squares form central distribution rooms, which are connected via an open-plan activities room. This gives the daycare a very flexible, flowing space that can be divided up using large sliding doors.
A highlight of the daycare is the spacious playground for playing and exploring, which opens to the Neckar. The playground fence is drawn obliquely outwards over the sidewalks to create an "endless" playground that, seen from the inside, has no clear separation between private and public. From the outside, however, it forms a protective barrier and is actively designed as a green bouldering wall for climbing and as a bench for enjoying the Neckar.
The structure is designed as a timber construction system with stabilizing concrete cores, with 20% photovoltaics and 20% greenery integrated into the facade design. In addition, wood and recycled material from urban mining are used for the "infills" of the various self-shading facade grids for a sustainable facade design.
