Transformation within a listed historic ensemble in the city centre
A former two-storey administrative building of Struik Foods GmbH has been fundamentally reconfigured and vertically extended by two additional full storeys and an activated roof level. Through the rigorous articulation and continuation of its architectural order and hierarchy—from the existing fabric toward a newly composed whole understood as a coherent ensemble—the project establishes a distinct spatial identity: a resilient environment for education and everyday life.
The new after-school care facility with integrated school use on Clara-Zetkin-Straße addresses the urgent demand for childcare while proposing a prototypical learning environment that builds upon and transforms existing resources. It consolidates previously dispersed facilities of the town of Beelitz at a single site opposite Diesterweg Primary School, accommodating up to 400 children. Educational and non-educational programs are spatially interwoven, enabling open-ended, self-directed learning and play within a flexible spatial framework.
Strategic interventions within the transformation process structure the building into differentiated programmatic zones—for movement, creative production, digital media, teaching, performing arts, and dining—culminating in a light-filled roofscape conceived as an inhabited landscape with gardens and play areas. The exterior grounds extend this spatial continuum, offering zones for play, sports, and retreat, including running tracks, a long jump facility, a stage, and terraces.
The six-storey volume is articulated into base, middle, and roof in accordance with the classical principle of stratification. A carefully calibrated chromatic scheme mediates between the building and its urban context, lending the ensemble a composed and enduring presence. The partially sunken basement is reactivated through its direct connection to the adjacent play landscape and the insertion of a stepped seating structure, forming an amphitheatrical space for collective use.