Studio Parallel Arch+Design completed a colorful and thoughtful space for the German School Brooklyn (GSB) in New York City, New York.

The German school Brooklyn is the first bilingual German and English international school in New York. It is designed to serve 460 K-12 students, students who would matriculate with an International Baccalaureate degree.

Budget and program constraints required maximizing the entire available buildable area. The resultingbox was then pushed and pulled, creating interior and exterior spaces that both reduced scale, compressed and expanded volumes and created visual interest. Each of these spaces had to also function in multiple ways. The stage becomes a music room, the multimedia room a presentation space, the library and meeting room, the roof a playground, the lobby an interior plaza and cafe, the art room a
maker space and the mezzanine hallway a linear lounge.

On the interiors, we left exposed the structural steel beams and columns, precast concrete slabs and building services in order to create a balance between the raw materiality of the structure and the warm hospitality inspired aesthetic of the finishes and furniture. Color was used to stitch the building together, creating a line from the street all the way up to the roof soccer pitch. The facade’s blue base color is repeated as an accent color in the 1st floor gymnasium while the facade’s accent yellow color weaves
through to the interior lobby, main four -story stairwell and 2nd floor library. Similarly, at the 3rd and 4th floor hallway and classrooms, we used accent colors to differentiate the floors and reinforce wayfinding.

Design: Studio Parallel Arch+Design
Contractor: L&K Partners Inc (Newgrange Construction)
Furniture: Arizona Furnishings
Photography: Bernadett Pava