The Oberhausen Institut zur Erlangung der Hochschulreife realised by Oswald Mathias Ungers between 1953 and 1959 is a project that leads to the centre of the architectural debate of the 1950s in Germany. His design for a school building followed emancipatory ideas; the spatial arrangement and the material aesthetics were conceived in close dialogue with the desired social processes and structures. This publication centres around the building, its in-built behaviour and material strategies, and its atmospheric and perceived qualities.