5. februar 2012

Buildings and Accessibility

Grenaa Gymnasium was designed by the architects Gravers and Richter in 1961 and the buildings were finished in 1964.

Accessibility

The gymnasium is a one floor building with small differences in levels. From the very beginning these levels have been connected with ramps and therefore they are a natural part of the school's architecture. The lowest floor of the boarding school has a room for the handicapped with a toilet and a bath. There is easy accessibility on this floor and in the communal areas. Therefore, Grenaa Gymnasium and its boarding school is an ideal place of education for students with special needs for accessibility.

Award-winning Architects

Originally Gravers and Richter worked for C.F. Møller, but having won the first prize for their design of Aarhus Statsgymnasium they decided to start on their own. Aarhus Statsgymnasium was finished in 1959 and was one of the gymnasiums that the city counsel of Grenaa visited, once it had been decided that Grenaa was to have its own gymnasium. The city counsel chose this building as their favorite, therefore Gravers and Richter's next building became Grenaa Gymnasium.  

Beautifully Situated on the Moors

In a number of ways Grenaa Gymnasium differs from Aarhus Statsgymnasium. Grenaa Gymnasium has been built on a beautiful, flat moor. For this reason the architects chose to build it on a raised plateau, which means that all around the first part of the building you will find a tiled bastion. 

Practical Lay-out

Grenaa Gymnasium was built as a subject-specific gymnasium with a central cloakroom, which was new at the time. For this reason the architects worked with short distances within the gymnasium, and thus avoided the long, straight hallways of their first gymnasium. The first part of the gymnasium lies within a square ground plan with the assembly hall at its dominating  centre. The subject-specific classrooms lie around this centre.

Horizontal and Vertical Lines


When looking at the school from the outside, horizontal lines seem to dominate, yet even from this perspective the assembly hall rises above the rest of the building and its vertical window bars counter the horizontal lines. The bars are in the same dark blue color as the rest of all the outside woodwork. The red bricks and the blue color are the most typical characteristics of the building.
Inside the building the blue color is repeated on the pillars in and around the assembly hall. Furthermore, this first part of the gymnasium has a pool in the entrance hall. (instead of the Jorn relief the architects had planned).

The Need for More Space

From the beginning the architects were aware of the fact that it would be necessary to expand the gymnasium. The new addition was built in 1973 and turned out to be as large as the first section. The ground plan has been designed using the same prinicple of a square without long hallways. At the centre of the new section there is the "egegaard" (an atrium) and other open spaces. In the spirit of the times these spaces were laid-back social spaces and eating areas and a library with a study hall.