Description

The architect describes the building as a continuous wave structure, made almost exclusively of natural timber in the form of short timber beams joined in a ‘space frame’ structure held together with hexagon shaped metal fittings. Timber is viewed as a traditional material and therefore must be used in its purest form; no laminates are permitted. The zinc roof, like the structure itself, runs down to the ground. The result is a roof covering which has a strong natural atmosphere reminiscent of Steiner architecture from the 1920s. Although the plan comprises four nursery spaces and a large community room, the conventional square or rectangular spaces of most childcare buildings are dissolved into a three-dimensional sculpture of unusual spatial qualities. The sculpture‘s very structural ambiguity makes its edges stretch out into the surrounding garden suggesting a tree or similar organic form to be found in nature.

As the architect himself has stated, this approach is intended to subvert the conventional cut-off between inside and outside, and the prescribed fixed room form which most childcare buildings have. This highly intellectual vision of a building for children is based on the principle that, as young children play in random patterns, they should be allowed a degree of freedom within their play spaces for random spontaneous play, for chance encounters with others and the ability to change and adapt their environment just as any woodland creature might do. As the roof is both structurally and spatially independent of the internal spaces and subdivisions, change would and should be expected. The form of the building is a metaphorical comment on this take on childhood. It is also an elegant, unusual form, which has a very strong presence in the city.

This is a building which defies conventional definitions since its walls are integral to its roof plan. In some ways the conventional four space plan is at odds with the expressive free-flowing roof structure. It is a big roof, a single flowing, folding shape drooping down to the ground. There are no roof gutters, and nothing penetrates the single, albeit folded planes of the big roof. The plan (and structure of the roof) twist and curve around the internal play space, enclosing and sheltering both inside and outside. Although it is predominantly single-storey, there is a two-storey ‘pavilion’, which provides a large communal entrance with adjacent staff accommodation and on the first floor a conference facility that can be used when the rest of the building is closed off. A large outdoor swimming pool, an important community facility within this humid climate, also provides natural therapeutic play for young children.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.