Kita Bergen-Enkheim Kindergarten
The latest BOLLES+WILSON kindergarten is now, after a protracted incubation open for its 60 mini-customers.
It is beside a fire station and behind suburban villas in Frankfurt’s Bergen Enkheim district.
The ‘coat of many colours’ façade is wood, sustainable, a signal for the building’s ‘passive house’ status. Colourful sun awnings animate the south façade where the six group rooms open to the playground or to the first floor balcony (where stairs connect down to playground). Sliding white sunscreens on the East and West façades also give nighttime security for open windows.
The flat roof is planted for rainwater retention and for insect habitat.
The compact volume and upper level multipurpose room are consequence of the limited site and a ground level change 2,20m.
The interior circulation gallery is animated by an optimistic green/yellow wall with giant foot/hand prints. A thematicising of scale is endemic to a building whose customers are only 70 centimeters tall.