A Leafy Learning Environment

A school ensemble designed by Fuchs und Rudolph Architekten und Stadtplaner was recently completed in Freising, just outside Munich. Covering around 23,500 square meters of gross floor area, the extensive building complex includes a four-storey elementary school and a five-storey junior high school. In addition, there is a section providing all-day schooling, kitchens with a canteen, administration rooms, various storage areas, a triple-section sports hall with grandstand and an underground car park. The schools can now take up to 1,100 students. Not only was it possible to preserve the existing trees during construction work, new greenery was also added. Now students can relax or play freely in leafy school grounds that have been freshly planted with perennials, shrubs, and pine trees. Given the building’s heavy use it was important to not only make the school facades architecturally attractive but also ensure they are robust.

With this in mind the lower section was clad with beige-colored clinker bricks, while Rieder’s “concrete skin” and “formparts” products were used in the upper section. The latter are wall panels in the same color as the clinker facade, namely in “Sahara” and with a “ferro light” surface finish. They also have rounded edges. The panels are made of fibreC fiberglass-reinforced concrete, have a surface appearance characteristic of concrete, and are a mere 13 millimeters thick.

Rieder’s three-dimensional formed parts are available with a sharp or a rounded edge and can be produced in lengths up to five meters. They are light in weight, come in large span widths, can be pre-assembled regardless of weather conditions, and are completely fire resistant (certified Class A1 fire resistance). All these factors make them interesting for educational facilities and not just from an economic angle, because they also meet the exacting safety standards required of such buildings. Thanks to their proven ball impact resistance the elements are also suitable for facades on sports grounds or playgrounds. What is more, like all products by Rieder, they are free of crystalline silica or other substances harmful to health.

In addition, as fiberglass-reinforced concrete does not need to be sanded or painted the “formparts” involve low maintenance requirements and extreme durability offering a service life of over 50 years. The sustainability concept associated with this underlies all Rieder products. It thus comes as no surprise that since 2019 the company has succeeded in reducing overall CO2 emissions by 35 percent. One measure that contributed to this reduction was the development of Matrix 3.0, a CO2-reduced material for sustainable facade elements that uses local natural pozzolana instead of 50 percent of the customary cement. This is another element in Rieder’s plan to reduce carbon emissions and become climate-positive and ca