There are already some rough concrete walls several meters high between the cranes, and the foundation can also be seen. Anyone who is currently peering between the fences at the construction site of the new Kirchheimer Gymnasium can gradually and better imagine that a school for around 1,350 pupils will be opened here in just over two and a half years. A few months after the groundbreaking, the foundation stone for the major project was laid on Thursday.
The grammar school will be located in the middle of the new park, which will connect the two districts of Kirchheim and Heimstetten for the 2024 State Garden Show. The building is inspired by schools in Copenhagen and Rotterdam, among others. The design by the Berlin architects’ office, which won the design competition in 2016, looks like a cuboid made of stacked wooden panels separated by high glass windows. Inside, a bright foyer with curved galleries will extend over four floors, followed by an auditorium with space for 600 people. In addition to the classrooms, each grade gets its own learning island, which offers space for individual and group work, for learning or for resting.
The new grammar school is to become a modern, open school, as shown by the numerous visualizations by the architectural office. However, the construction has given rise to controversy since planning began. In particular, the costs have been the subject of heated discussions in the municipality since the first estimate in February 2017. At that time, 88 million euros were planned – no comparable school building in the Munich district has been so expensive. A little later, the Zweckverband capped the amount at 75 million. However, it quickly became clear that this requirement could not be met. The planners are currently anticipating costs of around 92.4 million. The greater part of the sum is taken over by the district of Munich, the remainder is shared by the municipalities of Kirchheim, Aschheim and Feldkirchen, which are represented in the Zweckverband.
“So far we are in this plan as far as the costs are concerned,” announced Kirchheim’s mayor Maximilian Böltl (CSU) at the laying of the foundation stone. The shell construction work is currently in progress: the interior walls on the ground floor are being concreted, the formwork for the individual foundations of the quadruple sports hall is being put in place. According to his own statement, Böltl is confident that the grammar school can be put into operation as planned in autumn 2023. The outdoor and sports areas should also be completed by spring 2024.
If everything goes according to plan, the pupils will be able to move into their new grammar school exactly 40 years after the opening of the old building, as headmaster Matthias Wermuth noted when the foundation stone was laid. When it was founded in 1982, the then just 110 students had to move to the premises of today’s elementary and middle school before the grammar school was completed a year later. In the old annual report, Wermuth recognized parallels to the current situation: even then, moving to another building was an issue that preoccupied the school family. One day, future generations may discover this anecdote about their high school – Wermuth put a copy of the old and the current annual report in the time capsule that was buried under the foundation stone.
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