Primary school on the southern Sonnenberg handed over

Today, Lord Mayor Sven Schulze gave representatives of the media a tour of the new "Südlicher Sonnenberg" primary school at Jakobstraße 20.

A modern school building for 224 children with a two-court sports hall and outdoor facilities has been built on Jakobstraße. Pupils from Ukraine, who are currently in Chemnitz as refugees from the war, are being taught there from today. This includes four primary school classes in grades 2 to 4 and four classes from grade 5 onwards. The first ABC pupils will be welcomed from the 2023/24 school year.

In autumn 2018, the need for a capacity expansion of two primary school classes was identified for school district IV south of Sonnenberg. The city council decided to build the school in May 2020. The foundation stone was laid on 8 October 2020 at a total cost of around €19.2 million, of which €10.5 million is from the "School Infrastructure Ordinance" funding programme.

A barrier-free campus area is to be developed on the southern Sonnenberg, which can be a meeting and exchange point for children, young people and adults in the district, but also for residents of other neighbourhoods and school districts. The proximity of the primary school and after-school care centre to the existing children's and family centre as well as the "Bunte Gärten" leisure and sports facilities provides the ideal conditions for active and barrier-free migration and inclusion.

The new school building completes the urban design of the neighbourhood. The building blends in harmoniously. Its interior spaces are linked to the exterior in a variety of ways, creating exciting spatial situations. The new school complex consists of two main buildings and a connecting building. The three-storey school building at the Martinstrasse-Jakobstrasse junction now forms the new urban prelude to the southern Sonnenberg. Another component of the complex is the two-storey sports hall with a green school garden as an open space. The weather-protected connection between the buildings is ensured by a glazed corridor area on the ground floor, which also serves as the foyer of the sports hall.

The centrepiece of the building is an open, light-flooded three-storey atrium that can be used for multiple purposes. The central seated staircase connects the spatial landscape on all floors and offers visual references in the interior. Together with the canteen on the ground floor, this creates a communicative centre of the school building with a direct link to the schoolyard.

By implementing the room acoustics requirements for inclusive buildings, there is a high quality of stay in all rooms, which creates a pleasantly calm atmosphere as soon as you enter the atrium.
The classrooms and group rooms are distributed around the atrium on all three utilisation levels of the school building. The after-school care centre is located on the ground floor in the rooms on the south side facing the quiet outdoor area towards the playground. The offices of the school administration and social services are located together on the north side of the building. Two enclosed stairwells provide the necessary escape routes.

The sports field of the Zweifeld hall is accessible without barriers on the ground floor. The changing rooms are located on the upper floor. These are accessed via a gallery-like corridor, which also provides a view into the hall. The two-court sports hall will then also be available for club sports.

A uniform façade with a clinker brick look in shades of grey encompasses the entire ensemble. The main element is the grouped bands of windows in white or light grey, which structure the façade horizontally. The same façade design for the sports hall creates a visual unity between the building sections. A golden-bronze colour sets warm accents in the window strips. This colour is also used in the window frames. The main entrance is also emphasised by metal cladding in gold-bronze.

The school's outdoor area is currently being modelled and structured to create functionally meaningful and spatially varied levels with a height difference of up to five metres. The open spaces of the children's and family centre next door will also be connected in some areas to enable shared use in the sense of a campus. Gently sloping paths and spacious staircases with seating elements will connect the different levels in a safe and playful way.

Appropriate embankments will also be created, which will soon complete the outdoor area and blend in spatially and visually with the existing topography. The slopes are designed differently depending on their location and inclination. In addition to the numerous planted slopes, a "play slope" will also be created between the primary school and the gymnasium. It will be equipped with ropes, climbing ladders, boulders and a slope slide and is intended to encourage movement-intensive "three-dimensional" games.

In addition to the open spaces in the playground, the green roof of the gymnasium can be used as a school garden as well as a place to relax and experiment.

Photovoltaic systems on the roof of the school building provide electricity. Heat is supplied by district heating. Louvre elements were integrated into the ribbon windows for ventilation, which, along with skylights in the atrium, serve to cool the rooms at night. An appropriate building management system ensures that all systems are operated as efficiently as possible.

At the same time, the neighbouring Martinstrasse to the west was redesigned. In the direct vicinity of the school building, this is intended to increase traffic safety for pedestrians, organise pick-up and delivery traffic in the best possible way and improve the quality of the urban design.