Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten

After an intensive period of planning and construction, classes have begun in the new school building of the Betty Hirsch School Center of the Nikolauspflege in Stuttgart. On the traditional and topographically challenging site at Kräherwald, a fully accessible school building has been created—tailored to the needs of blind, visually impaired, multiply disabled, and deafblind children, as well as students without disabilities. The building sets new standards for inclusive education: flexible learning spaces, clear orientation aids, safe movement zones, and modern technical equipment provide ideal conditions for collaborative learning and self-directed education. A future-oriented place of learning that not only enables participation—but actively embodies it.

Construction of the new HLRS III high-performance computing center has begun on the southern edge of the Vaihingen campus of the University of Stuttgart. The new building will complement the existing HLRS I and II facilities and create additional capacity for research and applications in the field of high-performance computing (HPC). The design is being developed in collaboration with Benthem Crouwel Architects from Amsterdam.
The building is divided into two clearly separated areas: the central, column-free server room with adjoining technical zones for power supply and cooling, and a three-story office wing with workstations and visitor areas. A vertical access corridor connects the two areas and provides insights into the technical processes. The architecture follows a compact cubature with an optimized floor plan. The façade design combines technical, safety-related, and design requirements. Integrated photovoltaic elements support sustainable energy generation. The new building is designed as a hybrid construction of reinforced concrete, wood, and steel. The supporting structure in the server area, made of laminated veneer lumber beams, allows maximum flexibility for future adaptations. A central element of the energy concept is the use of waste heat from the supercomputer: this is processed in a new waste heat center via heat pumps and fed into the campus network as local heating via an underground pipe system. At full load, up to 50% of the heating energy required by all university buildings on campus can be covered by waste heat utilization in the future.

The education campus in Überlingen has been growing steadily through expansions and structural optimisations. A varied composition of different buildings that blend into the surrounding residential area and are increasingly interconnected, includes a vocational school, a secondary school and a grammar school.
The grounds of the new grammar school will include spacious and varied recreational areas. The new school building is designed as a timber hybrid structure, combining sustainable construction with energy-efficient building technology that largely manages without mechanical ventilation. The learning rooms for Years 5 to 10, the function rooms and the Sixth Form Learning Centre create an open learning environment through flexible use of space.
Our contribution to the project competition for the new grammar school building in Überlingen was awarded 4th prize.

We are delighted to have received a recognition at the Baden-Württemberg Timber Construction Award! The Sports Hall in the Grove for the Ruit State Sports School in Ostfildern takes its shape from the context and the consistent implementation as a timber construction.

Our design was awarded first prize in the competition "New administration building in straw bale construction" on the grounds of the Hessenpark Open-Air Museum.
„The building evolves from an almost square footprint, with the east side directing towards the entrance. It forms an autonomous entity that is not predominantly oriented towards the surrounding typologies. An only slightly pitched roof underpins its form, which is striking in its flatness. This subtle approach works well, although the timber structure would imply a perpendicular construction. The building is organised around an inner courtyard, which is set slightly off-centre. This creates different spatial zones allocated to the respective occupations. In combination with the inner courtyard, the zoning and versatility result in high standard offices and meeting rooms.
The energy efficiency requirements of the State of Hesse to exceed the minimum legal requirements are easily met with this design. The proposed energy concept consistently pursues the low tech principle and thus impresses the jury". (Excerpt from the jury assessment)