SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION 2025 in Essen: Barbara Pampe calls for a new way of thinking in school construction

At SCHULBAU Essen: School as a space of possibility – Barbara Pampe’s approach

When architect and foundation board member Barbara Pampe talks about school construction, she is not talking about square meters, building standards or fire protection regulations. It’s about participation. About spaces that change learning. Architecture as a tool for social change. Together with Dr. Meike Kricke, she has been heading the Montag Foundation Youth and Society since 2019 – an institution that inspires, shakes up and opens up spaces.

At the SCHULBAU Salon & Messe in Essen, Barbara Pampe will present the project “Schulbau Open Source – SOS Weimar”: a change of perspective in educational construction that has consequences for all those who help build schools – literally and figuratively. “For us, planning and building schools means sharing knowledge, questioning norms and rethinking learning,” says the architect and board member of the Montag Stiftung Jugend und Gesellschaft about her contribution to the SCHULBAU Salon & Messe in Essen.

School Building Open Source: The Model Project in Weimar

The Jenaplan School Weimar is a pilot location. And what’s more, it is an experimental space for what school can be. As part of the School Building Open Source (SOS) project , the aim is to consistently make pedagogical thinking the basis of spatial design. Classrooms are broken up, functions are regrouped, hierarchies are unlearned. The result is an environment that enables learning in the 21st century.

The focus is not only on architecture and spatial concepts, but also on a broad understanding of school as a place to live. What makes the project special is that it shares knowledge openly and comprehensibly. Design principles, planning processes and usage scenarios are documented and published – as an invitation to think along and continue.

Between Norm and Reality: Architecture as a Political Task

Barbara Pampe knows the areas of tension of school construction from practice, teaching and foundation work. She was a co-founder of the architectural firm baladilab, played a key role in the establishment of the Faculty of Architecture at the German University in Cairo as a professor of design and building theory, conducted research at the Institute for Public Buildings and Design at the University of Stuttgart and is a regular jury member in architectural competitions. She knows where processes fail: too much norm, too little attitude. Therefore, she calls for an active questioning of the existing requirements. Why is a classroom 60 square feet? Why does each subject need its own wing? What is a hallway but wasted learning space?

The SOS project does not provide ready-made answers to these questions. But it asks them – systematically, loudly and with the aim of relocating school construction as a cultural task.

SCHULBAU Messe Essen: Room for new thoughts

SCHULBAU – International Salon and Trade Fair for Educational Construction will be held on 24 and 25 September 2025 in the East Foyer at Messe Essen. For two days, perspectives from architecture, planning, pedagogy and administration will be brought together here. It’s about concrete projects, but also about long-term strategies. It is about the city as an educational space, about sustainability in the existing buildings – and about new impulses such as Barbara Pampe’s approach. Her lecture on the Jenaplan School Weimar is more than a project presentation. It is a plea for an open building culture that wants to shape responsibility together. With actors from all disciplines – and with the courage to rethink school.

Secure your ticket for Barbara Pampe’s lecture and the rest of the program for our SCHULBAU event in Essen on September 24 and 25 immediately in our ticket shop: CLICK!