Integrated Comprehensive School, Frankfurt am Main

In the new Integrated Comprehensive School in Riedberg, one of Frankfurt’s newest districts, Westermann was responsible for the wall claddings in various areas, for seating and storage furniture as well as for the window reveals in the classrooms. Due to the sheer quantity of furniture, modular elements and other components such as acoustic panels – whose delivery and installation had to be coordinated with other trades down to the minute – far-sighted, meticulous planning incorporating logistics and manufacturing times played a central role for on-time completion, especially with delivery difficulties and delays caused by Corona and the war still to be reckoned with.

The central material for Westermann here is oak. It appears – for example in a total of 134 running metres of free-standing benches – as solid wood, in the window reveals as three-layer panels, veneered in the parapet shelves and – for instance in the wall claddings of the learning niches – in fire-protection class A1, non-combustible.

In 40 classrooms and shared spaces as well as 17 offices for the school management and teaching staff, Westermann installed four-sided window reveals – a total of about 1,200 running metres – as well as parapet shelves placed in front of and beneath the windows. The walls opposite the façade sides were equipped with built-in cabinets that provide storage, accommodate washbasins and also conceal the technical building installations. Here the panels are white-coated and pick up the oak again at their edges.

In the assembly hall, acoustically effective lamella panels were used as wall cladding. In the foyer, green A1 fire-protection panels were used. The tea kitchens for teaching staff – also fitted out by Westermann – play with green accents, for example in the worktops or the back walls that act as splash protection. Analogously, the central counterbalanced lift-and-fold counter, whose front folds open for serving food before merging flush with the wall again, also works with green claddings. In the basement Westermann fitted out the changing rooms and equipped them with benches and coat-hook strips.