Description

Often the easiest job for an architect is to be given a greenfield site, a blank canvas so to speak, where he can do as he wishes without constraint. If you take that freedom away, introducing conditions to which he must respond, arguably it becomes more difficult and more expensive. So for example, a site which is in a historic setting may limit the imagination because there are so many planning restrictions. Alternatively the architect may have to work within the confines of an existing building, and convert it from the inside with the challenge to create something stimulating and child-orientated. The constraints of a tight budget create equal challenges.

It is fair to say that all of these restrictions existed when the specialist Berlin-based architectural practice, Baukind, was commissioned to transform an existing school building (the former Helen Keller School in Berlin-Charlottenburg) on three storeys to accommodate 65 children, most in full daycare, and many of them deaf or with impaired hearing. The new nursery is completely bilingual, using spoken German and German Sign Language. The challenge was to create an intelligent building, one which was of course functional and safe, but also a coherent sequence of spaces to which the children themselves could relate and learn from.

The accommodation required included six homebases (ten children in each), an art studio and a large children’s restaurant. On the ground floor the youngest children aged 1-3 years find an environment, which is in warm earthy colours, violet, with brown to red shades, evoking the soil in which the tree is rooted. This symbolises the roots of a tree, perhaps the mythical tree of life. A so-called ‘Snoezelraum’ provides a cosy environment that stimulates and soothes all senses at the same time. More vibrant yellows and oranges are adopted for the middle level, which is for the children aged 3-4. Here, the wall and floor graphic melt into each other to give a dramatic zig-zag edge to the room. On the top third level bright blue and green colours are used, this area being dedicated to the oldest children aged 5-6. This colour orientation is clearly a narrative structure, which refers to the base, the middle and the top of this most fundamental element of nature’s structures. Both colour concept and animal characters were developed together with Atelier Perela.

The orientation is given further legibility with the use of animal images, the worm and the rabbit around the roots, the fox and the deer, animals which represent the part of the tree trunk which is still grounded but already stretching and growing in height, and the upper branches and canopy of foliage which is represented by the squirrel and the owl. This provides a clear sense of orientation, one which exudes safety and security, but also challenges the children to go out and explore. The narrative is given clarity when the children themselves go out into the forest with their adult carers and have the narrative structure explained to them. All animal graphics are simple elegant designs verging on the abstract, thus eschewing the over-explicit anthropomorphism of Disney-type imagery.

The children’s restaurant celebrates the ritual of coming together of everyone to eat and share this fundamental communal event. It is furnished with purpose designed furniture which is scaled to each age range. Tables and stools are not only used for lunch, they also function as play pieces, giant robust building blocks which can be tipped up and used for all sorts of imaginative play. A large sliding door optimises the space and ensures flexibility. A true learning environment for play, which is flexible, spatially transformative and elegant. All furniture has been designed by Baukind. This multi-functional furniture creates a platform for playing and also incorporates adequate storage space, which alleviates the mess of toys.

---

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