PRAGUE WOODEN PARK KINDERGARTEN

Project idea

This project proposes expanding an existing kindergarten in Prague's Sacre Coeur park by adding three new, playfully designed, ground-floor volumes with a timber-frame load-bearing system. These new structures create an outdoor atrium, seamlessly integrating nature into the kindergarten. The original building is simultaneously renovated to house a versatile multi-functional space, serving as an adaptable venue for ceremonies, cultural events, a café, or the kindergarten's dining area. The overall design emphasizes flexible, interconnected spaces featuring playful architectural elements, fostering a dynamic environment that effortlessly adapts to the diverse needs and activities of each day.

Project description

Kindergarten, Ceremonial Hall, and Cafe: An Extension of the Existing Building in Sacre Coeur Park, Smíchov, Prague.
I propose a kindergarten designed as a playful, predominantly single-story building that opens into the park, featuring its own garden and a walkable roof.

The existing building is complemented by three "boxes" – classrooms with a wooden skeletal structure placed directly on the terrain. Their interconnection creates an outdoor atrium with a tree, bringing nature from the park directly into the kindergarten and serving as a shared outdoor room. One of these volumes then creates a shared playroom, a teachers' room, and facilities for the roof terraces on the upper floor. This upper floor can also function as a fourth kindergarten classroom.

The original building houses a multi-functional room with facilities that serves as a ceremonial hall, a cultural events space, a cafe, and the kindergarten's dining room. These functions are time-separated, allowing them to coexist without overlap. The entire kindergarten forms one airy, fluid, and playful space that can be divided into smaller units using sliding doors and curtains. Each classroom can be further divided into smaller areas with heavy curtains, the artistic design of which will be a subject of artistic collaboration with Jiří Straka. This allows the kindergarten to change its spatial arrangement throughout the day according to the current situation and create different spatial atmospheres.

Each classroom is visually divided into four parts through the exposed wooden skeletal structure. These include an open section with sliding French windows and access to the garden terrace, a more intimate section with a window and a parapet, a section with sanitary facilities for both children and teachers, and a section at the height level of the shared kindergarten spaces.

An important playful element of the kindergarten is the differences in height. Double steps within the classrooms and sloped surfaces create an interesting space for imaginative play for children.

Kindergarten, Ceremony Hall, and Cafe
As per the brief, the different uses of spaces are time-separated and thus complement each other. The kindergarten dining room is functional on weekday mornings, while the cafe is open in the afternoons and can be rented out as a venue for cultural events or as a wedding venue in the park. There are several ceremonial halls in the vicinity, and this one will enrich the area with a simpler, more affordable, and less demanding option nestled in nature.

Landscape
The landscape design aligns with the park, creating a transition between its organic paths and shapes and the strict orthogonal geometry of the building.

The buildings, by their form, define various spaces around them. The eastern side is dedicated to a private, fenced kindergarten garden. The southern side is a public leisure area with the main entrance to the buildings and their forecourts. A children's play area with the existing playground incorporated is also located here. The western part features public seating under trees, thereby bringing the park's boundary closer to the development and making the kindergarten feel more in the heart of the park than at its edge. In the northwestern part, there is a parking lot visually integrated into the park, and the building also defines its own, more private space for the wedding hall here.

I oriented the kindergarten classrooms towards the park and views of Prague, creating their own fenced garden. Each classroom is placed on the terrain and thus has direct access to it through its own terrace. The park's boundary is defined by a path, an obstacle course made of red rubber, which connects the terraces of all classrooms. Along the path, children encounter play elements that they can use independently or as part of traversing the entire path. The path features climbing tunnels, flower beds, a straightaway for balance bikes, a sandbox, bushes for hiding, and a slide with a small climbing wall and seating on the slope. The main play area is the meadow between the trees. A large grassy area with trees around the perimeter and thickets is sufficient for children here.

The main idea of the landscape design was to arrange individual elements and greenery in relation to the building in such a way that nooks and crannies were created, the space was divided, but at the same time remained well-controlled and supervised.

Rainwater is collected in a retention tank, which children use for caring for the flower beds and watering. Overflow water then continues to an infiltration tank in the northern tip of the property.

Technical information

Technology
The load-bearing structure of the new kindergarten is a wooden skeleton, which complements the original masonry building. This creates an airy space that can be further divided by infills between the wooden pillars, allowing for potential variability over time. The full perimeter of the building is insulated with mineral wool. The interior walls are made of light blue stained plywood, while the exterior sides of the walls are covered with Cetris boards. Light blue stained plywood also forms the interior partitions. The infills between the pillars thus have their own distinct color, artistically emphasizing the wooden load-bearing structure.

The flat roofs are a combination of walkable and green surfaces. Solar panels for the kindergarten are located on the highest roof.

The original, existing kindergarten building will undergo reconstruction. It will be insulated, the roof and floor will be replaced, window openings will be enlarged, and a connection to the new building will be established. I consider this reconstruction valuable due to the resulting blend of old and new, which is a significant contribution to the locality and the city in general.

Heating is underfloor heating with convectors near the French windows. Ventilation is handled by individual units located in a quarter of each classroom that also serves as a technical utility space.