Bern­burg

Urban development cannot be conceived exclusively as a structural development. Especially in shrinking post-industrial cities, so-called soft factors play an increasingly important role for sustainable development. Education is a key mainstay. The secondary school centre Campus Technicus in Bernburg (Saale) created as part of IBAIBA Internationale Bauausstellung Stadtumbau 2010 sets a prime example.

Concentrating on the key areas of public transport, local traditional companies, and the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, one focus of the IBA process was to communicate Bernburg’s potential to the public and to enable future generations to experience it. Together with the Salzlandkreis district, the city of Bernburg took advantage of the IBA’s momentum to further develop the local education landscape in order to effectively counter the declining population, high school drop-out rates and local skills shortages. The idea of a new inner-city school complex, the Campus Technicus, was born. It was developed in merging the three secondary schools on the outskirts of the city, thus bringing the around 650 pupils from the suburbs to the heart of the city. The concept of the all-day school, focusing on practically-driven learning, was developed by teachers from the three secondary schools together with the (Berufs-)Bildungsgesellschaft mbH Bernburg and the district Salzlandkreis, in coordination with teachers and students. The ensemble is a mixture of existing and new buildings. The heart of the campus is the so-called “greenhouse,” with which the new school consciously opens itself to the city. The transparent multifunctional building with laboratories, a library, a media centre, a canteen and a cafeteria is to be open to all – an initiation space for varied activities across schools and generations.