Fuchsberg Elementary School, Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf

Amok signage makes schools safer

In the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, the new building of the Fuchsberg Primary School in the Habichtshorst area of Biesdorf was ready for occupancy in autumn 2018 after a construction period of 2 years. The design and planning were created by the Berlin architects HerbstKunkler. The client was the State of Berlin, Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing / Marzahn-Hellersdorf District Office. The total construction costs amounted to around 17.5 million euros and were around 1 million euros less than planned.

No new school has been built in this district for 15 years. The former elementary school at Fuchsberg was housed in mobile classrooms on the Klingenberg secondary school property for 26 years. Now a modern, friendly learning environment has been created for almost 500 pupils. In addition to the library, cafeteria, after-school care, multi-purpose hall and sports hall, there is a modern, spacious inner courtyard. The schoolyard, with plenty of open space to romp around, offers the children a football and basketball field, trampolines, table tennis tables and an adventure playground. Great importance was attached to the orientation system. It was realized with the signalling specialist Meng according to the designs of HerbstKunkler Architekten, with Angelika Kunkler in charge. The basis of the concept was the best possible safety in case of emergency.

Amok signage

The rampage in Winnenden in 2009 was the trigger for various measures to prevent violence in schools. In terms of orientation, it became clear that both those seeking help and rescue workers must exchange matching location data so that action can be taken without delay when schools are called upon to provide assistance. For this purpose, clear orientation instructions outside and inside the rooms and the building are necessary.

Amok signs have two important functions. In the event of an emergency call, the emergency services will receive exact information about the location of the incident from the person seeking help and the emergency services will be directed quickly and precisely to this location in the building. In this way, misunderstandings in communication can be prevented by using different names and all persons can orientate themselves quickly and safely. For the successful use of such an orientation system, it is necessary to transfer the room numbers, entrances and emergency exits into a digital building plan. This will be made available to the organisations responsible for emergency response and the school authorities.
Using the example of the Fuchsberg primary school, the individual information elements are described in more detail below.

Design of the control system

Pastel blue lettering was applied to the walls, doors and skylights inside and outside the rooms for the amok signs. They indicate the exact location, e.g. multi-purpose hall, sports hall, classes, administration, library, changing room, school management etc. In addition, all rooms have a door sign with a widely visible room identification consisting of letters for each part of the building and numbers for the room number, e.g. A217. The room markings are repeated within the rooms as foil text in the middle of or above the doors. The font Arial and the font size 5 cm

serve a very good recognition. The logo of the Fuchsberg Elementary School can be seen on all door signs. On the building graphic within the logo, the part of the building in which you are located is highlighted with pearl gold. The information contents, location and room identification, are signal white on the background colours grey and pastel blue. In order to ensure optimal orientation, the floor signposts on all three floors have been placed in the foyer and staircase in a clearly visible position. They were executed in stencil technique.

The typographic information transfer is supplemented by pictorial, attractive pictograms in pearl gold. They are up to 1.80 m in size and present themselves on door systems and wall surfaces. On the latter they were executed in stencil technique. The pictograms stand in the context of the architecture, are suitable for children and facilitate orientation for young and old.

Rooms that are accessible from outside the building were given a weatherproof stainless steel door sign in addition to the amok signs. They differ in design and size and designate functional rooms, such as garden tools, garbage and house alarm. The door signs are completely made of stainless steel and both the logo and the writing were engraved into the stainless steel surface. Unobtrusively elegant, they integrate perfectly into the outer facade.