A special feature of the flying artist’s room programme is that it brings its own “non-school” place with it to school. It serves as a live-in studio space for the artists, but also as a place of work, learning and creativity for everyone involved.
In their design, architects Prof. Nikolaus Hirsch and Prof. Dr. Michel Müller rose to the challenge of developing a flexible space of this kind. The aesthetics of a classic artist’s studio play as important a role as the possibility of living in it, at the same time making the entire space flexible and functionally useable for different creative formats or work situations.
“The question was how to create a place for art that “flies”, i.e. that is not permanently fixed in one place but moves around. The challenge was to develop a building that is mobile without the mobile becoming a goal in itself, without it conforming to the cliché of the flying building. It was therefore essential that this did not take the form of a classic container building (as is the case with most temporary school buildings), but instead developed an independent architectural vocabulary despite all the technical parameters.“
(Prof. Nikolaus Hirsch & Prof. Dr. Michel Müller, architects)
The building, which is around 7.50 x 11 metres covering an area of approximately 80 square metres, was originally closed to the outside on three sides, but is now closed on two sides. It has a compartmentalised wooden shingle façade that deliberately leaves the scale of the building unclear. Inside there is a generously proportioned studio illuminated from above by natural light, whose clear height of up to 3.50 metres exceeds standard container dimensions and therefore again creates a studio ambiance.
Following the decision in autumn 2021 to extend the programme by four more locations – three other school locations and one in the Frankfurt district of Preungesheim – work began on developing a new prototype. Architects Prof. Nikolaus Hirsch and Prof. Dr. Michel Müller revised their original design from scratch with designer Lukas Wegwerth, retaining the basic structure of the accommodation module and studio space and the wood and shingle aesthetic. In the process, greater consideration was given to issues such as accessibility, sustainability and a new porousness and opening onto the outdoor space with the addition of another double door at the back.
© Michel Müller
“For me, sustainable building means, among other things, using local resources carefully and sparingly. How can we build sensibly and durably with what we have locally? You can find many examples of this in rural areas – mainly in the form of historic buildings. So there is a lot of old knowledge that seems to have been forgotten. Shingles are an example of this: they are highly efficient protection against the weather. They are very thin, so they dry faster than a fungus can attack them. There are many similar examples that show that modern durable and responsible construction can build on, apply and potentially develop historical knowledge.“
(Lukas Wegwerth, Designer)