Playing on a roof – the Katharinenschule in Hamburg’s HafenCity is one well-known example, others are the Jan-Prins and Willebrord schools in Rotterdam. Maybe it is too early to call it a trend, but it is definitely a good idea which is particularly convincing in highly-compressed urban spaces.
In the Liverpool suburb of Stockbridge Village, the office 20/20 Liverpool has built a schoolyard of 900 square metres at a lofty height to offer a safe playground for children which is intended to become a place to learn as well. The complete conversion and construction of the local Primary School is only one of a number of measures for sustainable stabilisation of that suburb, which in the 1980s was labeled as the most dangerous part of Liverpool.
With gymnasium, swimming pool, various common areas and a so-called Learning Resource Center, the school now presents itself as modern and future-oriented.
The schoolyard has been laid out with elastic slabs offering incentives for physical activity. At the same time, it is a place to meet and talk thanks to various round benches. This place shall also offer the opportunity of getting out of the classrooms on the first floor to continue pedagogical work with the children under the open sky.
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