The first Steinerian school based on the holistic education program of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, was opened in Stuttgart in 1919. Founded by Emil Molt, owner of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory, the school aimed to provide an education to the factory-workers’ children. The teachers were trained by Steiner himself. In fact, the Steiner education system is also known as the Waldorf system, like the brand of cigarettes. Modeled on the first institute established in Stuttgart, teaching at Waldorf schools covers the full gamut of subjects but rejects specialization at all educational stages, which range from six to 18 years.
Like his mother before him, Stefan Behnisch attended the school during the 1960s and 70s, going on to study architecture, following in his father Günter’s footsteps, and then establish his own firm Behnisch Architekten, also in Stuttgart. Behnisch’s children also attended the school. Once they had completed their education, he accepted a commission to design new spaces to accommodate the technological and pedagogic evolution that had taken place in the century since the school was first started.
Called the Freie Waldorfschule Uhlandshöhe, the school is located in the eastern quarter of Stuttgart, a hilly residential area overlooking the city. The buildings making up the campus were mainly built after the Second World War. Most of the classrooms are in the main building, much of which was re-built after the war. In the 1980s, the volume containing the auditorium was added along with an adjacent building housing teacher training spaces, the dining hall, a day nursery, and gym. Subsequently in 2008, another building was added to provide space for after-school activities, pre-school child-care, a cafeteria, and library.
Behnisch Architekten’s program entailed demolition of the school’s oldest building – dating back to the end of the 19th...
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