"Educational flagship project" and a "signal of change for Bremerhaven's educational landscape" are the objectives for the construction of three new schools in the Bremerhaven districts of Geestemünde, Mitte and Lehe.
The major task of building three schools in one go and thus creating a new, innovative educational offer for Bremerhaven is being tackled by Städtische Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH as the client on behalf of the City of Bremerhaven and the education authority in an innovative tendering process that has only been tried out abroad to date.
BIS Bremerhaven Society for Investment Promotion and Urban Development was brought in to assist with project management.
The new construction of the three schools in Bremerhaven is the first public-sector building construction project in Germany to be implemented by an Integrated Project Alliance (IPA). This makes it a flagship project far beyond the region and a model for future construction projects. The core of the alliance is formed by the STÄWOG Group as the client, BIS for project management and five renowned planning and construction companies that applied for the project in EU-wide tenders. However, many other stakeholders, in particular the pupils, teachers and school administrators, have also been involved from the outset.
The construction of a new school alone would be a major project. But rising pupil numbers and the need to renovate existing school buildings make the construction of three new schools urgently necessary in Bremerhaven. This has also prompted the elected representatives in the city council and the Bremerhaven municipal authorities to try a new approach: the STÄWOG Group as the developer and BIS Economic Development Company as the coordinator are working together - and the city's education authority is leasing their school buildings for 30 decades.
STÄWOG and BIS have also chosen a completely new method for implementing the construction projects: an integrated project alliance (IPA). Originally from Scandinavia, it brings together the client, architects and specialist planners as well as the construction companies carrying out the work from the very first line. In the "3 Schools Bremerhaven" alliance agreement, these are Städtische Grundstücksgesellschaft (STÄGRUND) as the client, BIS Economic Development Company for project management and five other partner companies: the architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (gmp) with WES GmbH LandschaftsArchitektur for the planning of the buildings and outdoor facilities, WTM Engineers GmbH for the structural design, Pfeil & Koch ingenieurgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG for the planning of the technical building equipment (TGA), Bremer AUG. Prien Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG for the execution of the extended shell construction and Lindner SE for the execution of both the fit-out and the technical building equipment.
The idea of cooperation also extends beyond the alliance members to all stakeholders involved. In particular, the education authority, teachers and pupils have been closely involved in the planning of the school buildings and their pedagogical concepts from the outset - with scientific support from the University of Bremen. A common feature of all three designs for the new school buildings, which were selected by an expert jury on April 1, 2022, is their alignment with the latest pedagogical findings.
"With this project, we are gaining valuable experience with the pioneering IPA process, which will be used more and more frequently in Germany, in Bremerhaven and in our own projects in the future."
In the new process, time-consuming steps such as the Europe-wide tender and the building application procedure took place before or during the first phase, which was sealed with the first IPA contract signing in December 2021. Immediately after the lease was signed on April 28, 2023 by the City of Bremerhaven's education authority, the financing was completed and construction work could begin. As all three school buildings are due to be available for the start of the 2025/2026 school year, the three buildings will be constructed in parallel.
Modern methods such as Building Information Management (BIM), in which the entire life cycle of a building is recorded, managed and coordinated in a digital twin, and Lean Construction, in which all planning and construction processes are planned in a resource- and time-efficient manner, are used. Together with joint planning and implementation in the Integrated Project Alliance, they contribute to greater cost and schedule reliability compared to conventional methods.
In Bremerhaven, three new schools are to be built in the districts of Lehe, Lehe/Mitte and Geestemünde. An alliance called “3 Schools Bremerhaven” has been formed for this in an international competition. The schools are to stand for at least 30 years and provide space for the growing number of pupils.
The city of Bremerhaven has decided to build three high-quality new schools. The New Primary School Lehe (NGL) is being built in the Lehe district, the New Secondary School Lehe (NOL) on the border between the Lehe and Mitte districts, and the joint Hamburger Straße School Center (SHS) is being built in the Geestemünde district to replace the Allmers School (elementary school) and the Geestemünde Secondary School, which is in serious decline. The names of the schools are still working titles; the school names will be worked out together with the schools at a later date. A common feature of all three designs for the new school buildings, which were selected by an expert jury on April 1, 2022, is an arrangement in clusters instead of classrooms in line with the latest educational findings.
For the first time, Städtische Grundstücksgesellschaft (STÄGRUND) has been commissioned to build the new schools, with project management support from BIS Bremerhaven Economic Development Company. In return, the City of Bremerhaven undertakes to lease the schools for at least 30 years.
Following EU-wide tenders, the following companies have also become part of the "3 Schools Bremerhaven" alliance:
- The architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) with WES GmbH LandschaftsArchitektur for the planning of buildings and outdoor facilities,
- WTM Engineers GmbH for the structural design,
- Pfeil & Koch ingenieurgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG for the planning of the technical building equipment (TGA),
- Bremer AUG. Prien Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG for the execution of the extended shell construction and
- Lindner SE for the execution of both the fit-out and the MEP.
The STÄWOG Group, with the approval of the City of Bremerhaven, chose the innovative alliance method to implement the project. The schools are being built by the "Alliance 3 Schools" team. This consists of Städtische Grundstücksgesellschaft Bremerhaven (STÄGRUND) as the client, BIS Bremerhaven Economic Development Company as the project manager, as well as architects, specialist planners, contractors and teachers. The new construction of the three schools in Bremerhaven is the first public-sector IPA project in building construction in Germany and is therefore a flagship project for other cities.
Bremerhaven, like many other municipalities in Germany, is facing multiple challenges in the education sector, above all a rapidly increasing number of pupils. In this decade, the number of pupils in the city's elementary school will grow from 4,140 (2020) to 4,650 (2030) and from 6,100 (2020) to 6,900 (2030) in lower secondary schools. This makes it necessary to build the first new schools in Bremerhaven in almost 50 years.
In 2021, participation in the three new school buildings was put out to tender EU-wide in an alliance process. There was a great deal of interest and renowned world-class companies were acquired. In December 2021, the IPA contract (integrated project management with multi-party contracts) was concluded with the selected alliance partners.
Several collaboratively developed designs were then evaluated on April 1, 2022 by an interdisciplinary jury with members from the schools, politics, administration, education, architecture and the district conferences and the preferred design was selected for each of the three schools.
Once the "3 Schulen Bremerhaven" alliance had finalized its plans - including financially - the head of the schools department, Michael Frost, signed the 30-year lease on 28 April 2023. The alliance partners in turn signed the next stage of the IPA contract (phase 2).
As planned, the construction phase began in June 2023 with the deep foundations for the first school, the Hamburger Straße school center. Since then, construction has been underway at all three schools in parallel.
The three school buildings are expected to be completed by the start of the 2025/2026 school year.
"If we improve the quality of education, the city will also become more attractive for skilled workers with young families."
