Joseph-Christian comprehensive school in Riedlingen

Is education (in Germany) under construction? Or the buildings at least – schools are in the process of being renovated. Better noise protection is an important issue. The Joseph-Christian comprehensive school in Riedlingen has done a good job in this respect. Following its renovation, it has been modernised, but has lost none of its historical significance and old charm.

The Joseph-Christian comprehensive school in Riedlingen, situated on the southern edge of the Swabian Alb on the Danube in Baden-Württemberg, has been renovated. “The brick building was getting on a bit. It was built in 1906, and the German Emperor, William I, apparently sent his personal congratulations on its inauguration,” says Martin Romer, head teacher at the school. “However, the entire building had a major problem with noise, which is, of course, particularly important in a school,”, he continues. We needed a whole new acoustics solution, which also includes sound-absorbing fabrics. The textiles used here were specially developed to remove the echo from rooms and filter out unwanted frequencies in a targeted way.

Curtains for the right acoustics
They decided to use drapilux textiles. The name drapilux stands for intelligent materials which, unlike ordinary fabrics, have fire-retardant and sound-absorbing qualities and, if needed, are also air-purifying and antibacterial. These features ensure enhanced room quality.
In all classrooms there are floor-length curtains in drapilux Article 140, a softly flowing, dense fabric in an orange shade.

In the hall, the school selected Article 243 32, a gathered dim-out fabric. Nowhere else is this fabric used in this way. The article was created in a special colour to match the graphite tone of the flooring. To do this, the school made a sample of the floor available to the textile manufacturer. “It was not so easy to get the tone to match exactly,” explains Kirstin Herrmann, head of the design studio at drapilux. Cutting and execution was ultimately carried out by the large interior furbishing company Bültmann from Filderstadt.

Both fabrics have good acoustic values. Article 243 is in absorbency class B with a rated sound-absorption coefficient of αw 0.80 to 0.85, thus highly absorbent. With an absorbency of αw: 0.60 to 0.75, article 140 is highly absorbent and categorised in absorbency class C.

The textile manufacturer places great importance on complex test procedures and offers a portfolio of all sound absorbency classes. The respective category needed depends on the acoustic requirements of a room. “We are extremely satisfied,” says Romer. “The curtains fit in well and work in practice. In addition, we have good acoustic values throughout most of the school - after the renovation, the school has become a real gem."