Bünningstedt Elementary School in Newsletter

How a Phase Zero Led to a School Without Hallways

Baunetz reported in yesterday’s newsletter on the new building of the Bünningstedt Elementary School. The article especially highlights the “Phase Zero” process, the cluster-like organization of learning areas, and the deliberate decision to forgo traditional hallways.

Central to the project was the shared ambition to rethink school not as a sequence of classrooms connected by corridors, but as a cohesive learning landscape. Circulation areas—as well as the entire school—were conceived as spaces that can also be used for educational purposes.

The project demonstrates how an intensive Phase Zero process, combined with the openness of the client and school community toward new spatial concepts, can help adapt schools to contemporary educational needs.