Excellent new building with open atrium

An attractive new building for learning and working has been built in Heide and was awarded Schleswig-Holstein’s state prize for building culture in 2022: The compact construction of the Dithmarschen vocational training centre is widely visible and, with a floor area of almost 8,000 square metres, forms the new centrepiece of the BBZ school campus in Heide. The building, completed in August 2021, was designed by the Lübeck architectural firm ppp Architekten for four educational centres with common specialised teaching rooms and an administrative area. The house with a brick façade opens up to the outside space with a glazed foyer façade. Inside, four storeys are grouped around an open atrium with open learning spaces for around 3,500 trainees. The first level can be reached via a large open staircase, which also offers seating areas with a view of the stage on the ground floor.

During the planning and execution of the school building made of glass, wood and concrete, emphasis was placed on the best possible equipment quality and a high degree of safety. The choice thus fell on high-quality fixed glazing and steel doors from Forster. Smoke protection doors designed without thresholds or without fire resistance requirements and with a fire resistance duration of 30 and 90 minutes were used as hallway section doors in the interior area. The slim steel profiles also make possible what was most important to the architects in terms of the conceptual vision – the new BBZ building inspires with its openness, contemporary technical features and versatile usage options and is thus an identity-defining location of modern learning culture.

Heide, Germany

Products: Fire resistant doors forster fuego light (T30-RS and T90-RS);

Fire resistant fixed glazing forster fuego light F90 with accident-proof requirements;

Smoke protection doors forster presto 50 and forster presto 60s

Architecture: ppp Architekten + generalplaner GmbH, Lübeck, Germany

Metal fabrication: Engineer Albert Balk GmbH & Co., KG, Neumünster, Germany

Client: Dithmarschen district

Photography: Christoph Edelhoff