School buildings are among the most complex design, planning and construction projects for architects. They are also closely linked to the educational concepts and the cultural and spatial ideas of the era in which they were built.

New Schools on the Block brings together a decade of practical experience in school building by the collective AFF Architekten, which operates between Berlin and Lausanne and comprises architects, researchers and craftspeople. The book is a typological compendium featuring floor plans and photographs of 40 school building designs from the practice of AFF Architekten in Berlin, Göttingen, Cologne, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Kassel, Darmstadt, as well as in Näfels, Geneva and Fribourg. Photographs of the surrounding areas, entrance halls and stairwells, as well as classrooms, break areas and storage rooms, provide a wealth of visual material. A comic by the artist and illustrator Peter ‘Auge’ Lorenz on everyday school life adds an extra touch of realism.

A historical review of school building construction, perspectives on contemporary school architecture and an interview with AFF form the textual backdrop against which the designs by AFF Architects are contextualised.