Kindergarten Velvarská

During the design process, the theory of preschool education was very important to us, as knowledge of current trends in education defines a wide range of specific requirements for architectural and spatial solutions. The design utilizes the most knowledge from the constructivist methodology of ECE, which is based on active learning (“learning by doing”) – children adjust their conception of the world based on new experiences – actions performed at a specific moment in a specific environment. The driving force behind these processes is the natural instinct to discover the hidden order of things. Therefore, the design is based on simple abstract principles – contrary to the usual “adult” interpretation of children's playfulness, the trigger for children's imagination is rather a simpler, clearly defined concept than a “cluttered and finished” solution, whose interpretation is very limited and socio-culturally conditioned. The design creates an environment both in the exterior and interior with different atmospheres and with various “levels of difficulty” for different types of activities – especially in the garden design, which is divided into clearly defined places: not “let's go there,” but “let's go to the Upper Garden.” Unfortunately, the garden design was significantly altered during implementation. The changes negatively affected the layouts, which were last-minute adjusted under pressure from the municipal district into the form of barrack-style washrooms and changing rooms.

The kindergarten is located in Dejvice, near Evropská Street. The site originally housed the former nursery and kindergarten. Both buildings were designated for demolition, and their place was to be taken by the kindergarten we designed. Interestingly, the original kindergarten was ultimately not demolished. If its preservation had already been part of the brief, we would have adjusted the design accordingly, and it would have looked different. In the northern part of the site, space was left for possible future development, which was also meant to shield the kindergarten from noise from Evropská Street. Between the kindergarten and the planned residential construction, a space for a gym was placed, which would be used by both the kindergarten and the public – the kindergarten and its surroundings were meant to serve as a place where small children and their parents meet. Therefore, the kindergarten had the potential to become one of the cornerstones of the local community. However, this idea remained unfulfilled.
The site has a slight slope from České družiny Street to Velvarská Street, which is also reflected in the design - the new kindergarten building has two floors, the first of which is partially buried into the terrain. The upper floor is, on the contrary, what attracts attention to the kindergarten from the outside - the shaping of the mass works with rounded curves of the walls, roof, and floor. The mass reveals where it rests on the foundation, where it hangs, where it is tense – just like a living being. Its elongated mass is oriented east-west, which defines the basic axis, the original unifying motif of both the kindergarten and the garden. Both floors of the kindergarten contain two classrooms with a total capacity of 100 children. Originally, each of the 4 classes formed a separate unit (playroom, cloakroom, washroom) with a direct connection through the cloakroom to the garden, as the connection between the interior and the exterior is very important to us – this solution, however, was ultimately not realized. The walkable roof over part of the ground floor is used as a playground connecting to the garden's terrain.
The building is designed as a low-energy building to standard A. The construction of the building is a combination of walls made of ceramic blocks and monolithic concrete. The original idea to build the upper floor as a wooden structure was abandoned due to changes in Czech legislation. The façade is designed in a combination of plaster finish on an insulation system and wooden cladding on a ventilated façade with thermal insulation. The wooden cladding consists of laths made of Siberian larch complemented by strips of red cembonit panels.