Campus Rutheneum

In Gera, there was a desire to reunite the traditional Goethe-Gymnasium/Rutheneum in one place after decades of being split up into several locations. The city announced a structural and open space planning competition for the creation of the central campus on a site directly in the city center between Burgstrasse and Reichsstrasse. The historic school building on Johannisplatz, which was already in use, and the listed former Prussian government building built in 1720-22, which was to be renovated and extended to become part of the school complex, were already located there. The construction of a supplementary new building and a sports hall as well as the redesign of the outdoor facilities were also part of the competition brief.

The principle of the winning design is to highlight the typological and topographical features of the Rutheneum campus using urban and spatial planning methods. The proposed new building represents a cautious extension of the government building, which will be offset: This creates two schoolyard areas that are inviting for different uses, which are spatially separated but have a visual relationship with each other thanks to the spacious foyer in between. In combination with the reinterpretation of the historic city wall on Reichsstraße, a sequence of squares at different levels is created, whose spatial proportions reflect the scale of the old town: Johannisplatz, the Government Building schoolyard, the Campusplatz schoolyard and the "city balcony" on the Government Building - all of which are also open to the public.

All in all, the harmonious, unobtrusive combination of old and new will enhance the city center - in line with the Rutheneum's mission statement of transporting traditions and values into the education of the present in a contemporary way.