Haus für Kinder
The rooms of the new ‚Haus für Kinder‘,or day care center, in Kirchseeon, a market town east of Munich, can accommodate a day nursery and a pre-school for altogether 120 children. It appears as a serene structure harmoniously integrated in the town. The challenge of positioning the structure on the awkwardly shaped hillside site was resolved with a skilled urban-planning arrangement.
The day nursery and pre-school each have their own individual spaces opening onto noise-protected outdoor courtyard playgrounds, located on the street side and bordering on the parking lots.
At the central main entrance, a foyer flooded with light connects the sections of the day care centre from two directions on all levels to a common, open space.
Here the different heights of the adjoining outside areas are dealt with and consolidated, easing the traffic situation when children are brought to the day care centre and picked up again.
Day nursery and pre-school are connected to an all-purpose room via the central foyer, and each has its own individual access system. This allows for the necessary separation in daily routines. At the same time, as soon as both sections come together for celebrations and various events, the ‚Haus für Kinder‘ reveals its spacious, airy and bonding character.
With the well-proportioned and function-neutral rooms, the concept of a day care centre has been freshly interpreted. They are rooms that become adaptable through their simplicity. The goal has been a conscious atmosphere of reduced tension.
The restrained composition of proportion, light and material provide a well thought-out framework for activities and education.
The siding of vertical larch- wood boards on the outer façade lend a feeling of honest ‚skin‘ to the building. The use of natural materials in the interior – massive wood and natural stone floors of Jura limestone – also add to the rooms this feeling of quality and integrity which children can easily grasp.
Windows reaching to the floor flood the building with daylight and open up uninterrupted views to the outside.
All of these aspects provide the young users with a basic understanding of space and material. And educators have at their disposal a work place which allows for individual creative arrangements and optimal support for their tasks.
Just as the day care centre is inviting for the children, in its multi-purpose suitability and playtime potential, it is also flexible in its spatial organisation. The architecture does not dictate how the space must be used, rather allows for
an adaptable, needs-oriented utilization.
Thus its sustainability is confirmed, and its character directed to the future.
