North of the "White City", the former factory settlement of the Heinkel Flugzeugwerke from the 1930s, a new residential area is currently being developed, which will take into account the strong growth of the city of Oranienburg as a densification. As part of this structural development measure, the "Weiße Stadt" daycare centre for 106 daycare and crèche children was built directly on the new access road. The two-storey timber frame building is aligned with the street on the acute-angled plot and thus zones the outdoor areas surrounding it. A free-standing old oak tree now marks the centre of an inviting forecourt with seating and thus anchors the new building in the grown structure of the surroundings. To the rear is a spacious garden with a differentiated range of outdoor play areas.
The appearance of the square building is largely determined by a circumferential arcade. The recessed façade contains generous vertically structured window areas with a frame of light wood and an outer skin of finely sawn, grey-glazed larch wood strips. On the front level, the same battens create a lively play of façades in varying densities. The multi-layered façade also functionally expands the group rooms with additional, protected play and movement zones at the interface with the garden. The materiality of the façade and the consistently visible wooden construction of the building make it possible for the children to experience its joining and natural feel.
Inside the building, the four groups of the crèche area are located on the ground floor. The older children can access the upper floor from the foyer via the central staircase. There, the six group rooms of the daycare center are arranged in pairs according to the windmill principle around a central core. Two group rooms are each assigned a common adjoining room as well as a cloakroom and sanitary area. The colourful design of the fixtures made of glazed multi-layer panels characterises the various group areas and thus facilitates orientation. The choice of colours was deliberately kept muted and is linked to the appearance of the visible wooden components on the walls and ceilings. The result is a bright, warm and calming room effect with generous natural light.
In the group rooms, the furniture designed with the building creates a varied and diversely interpretable offer for the children to acquire. The puppet and theatre room offers suggestions for role play, the handicraft and building room specifically promote creativity and nest rooms offer protected areas and places of retreat. This educational offer is supplemented by a large exercise room and a child-friendly kitchen for cooking and baking together in the dining room.
The design of the kindergarten, which had already been proposed as a timber construction in the competition process, was very positively received by the city of Oranienburg, so that the daycare center could be implemented together as a local pioneer project for ecological and economical construction. The supporting structure made of timber frame elements with ceilings made of wooden beams visible on the underside was completely prefabricated thanks to three-dimensional planning of all elements and connections and erected on site within a few weeks. Emphasis was placed on the use of only local woods, here European larch and oak, windows and doors are made of coniferous wood. Exterior and interior walls as well as the green roof are insulated with wood fibres. The building is founded on a floor slab made of recycled concrete with insulation made of foam glass gravel.
Source: Knoche Architektur
Photos: Simon Menges
Isometrics+parts of the drawings: Daniela Faureanu in the seminar FAÇADE 4.0
The preparatory work for this project publication was carried out as part of the building construction theory in the seminar FACADE 4.0 at the FATUK of the RPTU through a student thesis by Daniela Faureanu.
