Mjölk Architekti creates "great and enjoyable place" for Montessori kindergarten

Mjölk Architekti aimed to embed Montessori beliefs of studying via play and self-determined exercise on this nursery extension in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic.

Constructed within the small city of Jablonec nad Nisou, the challenge was designed by Prague-based Mjölk Architekti in collaboration with Projektový atelier David.

Mjölk Architekti founding companion, Jan Mach, fastidiously thought of his personal recollections of preschool and what it represents in a younger kid’s life when designing the extension.

“Kindergartens are buildings the place young children develop essentially the most elementary relationships with the world,” Mach instructed Dezeen.

“In contrast to dwelling, it’s a place the place one is on one’s personal for the primary time, outdoors the protection of household and the place one makes particular person connections with individuals and the atmosphere, usually for the primary time in a single’s life,” he continued.

“We imagine that kindergartens ought to be extraordinary buildings whose major perform is to provide youngsters a way that the world is an excellent and enjoyable place to reside in.”

Mjölk Architekti upgraded the unique constructing, a big early Twentieth-century former rectory set over 4 flooring, and added an extension.

The studio additionally created an outdoor play space at higher floor ground stage that wraps across the previous and new buildings, linking the 2 buildings, whereas making a coated parking space at decrease floor stage.

Linked to the primary constructing by passageways throughout two flooring, Mjölk Architekti designed the extension as a cuboid “easy prism” that echoes the proportions of the primary constructing whereas making a distinction via its pared-back, ultra-minimal type.

“We had been searching for an acceptable form to match the mass of the unique nursery constructing, utilizing monolithic bolstered concrete,” Mach instructed Dezeen.

The block-like type was punctuated by a number of protrusions together with the tubular construction of a chrome steel slide that youngsters can use to descend down via the area, and a glass-fronted cantilevered field jutting out on the second ground, creating a novel play space.

“We related the flooring contained in the kindergarten with a slide, which the youngsters use to go away the constructing for a second with out asking after which return to it laughing,” stated Mach.

On the high of the constructing, an outside play space is contained inside a framework of steel poles that continues the strains of the constructing.

“We wished to make it potential to climb out of the extension onto a big concrete terrace, the place the youngsters are protected and on the identical time have as a lot freedom as potential,” stated Mach.

The stainless-steel mesh that encloses this space is prolonged to wrap round the entire extension.

“This internet creates a clear softer floor across the arduous prism of the constructing. Sooner or later, the web will probably be used to assist climbing vegetation, rising to round half the peak of the constructing,” Mach continued.

“The mesh surrounds the constructing and defines locations the place the youngsters can exit of the nursery on their very own and are in a protected atmosphere the place they can’t fall anyplace and might play in peace.”

Inside, rising above the primary floor ground area is a central void, surrounded by a sequence of mezzanine ranges, every one rising half a flight of stairs from the final.

The format goals to encourage child-driven exploration enabling the kid to put themselves within the atmosphere that feels proper for them.

“The inside area is actually one massive room cut up vertically into 4 ranges,” stated Mach.

“On the intermediate flooring, there are areas for youngsters to spend time, every intermediate ground has a unique environment and type, to stimulate the youngsters’s minds another way.”

The inside materials palette options uncooked concrete partitions which can be offset by a yellow linoleum ground that casts a heat glow in every area, together with birch ply components that introduce a way of tactility.

“Within the inside, we used concrete merely to assist the youngsters make mates with it from a younger age. As a result of the Montessori system makes use of numerous various things to show, we designed the inside to be a easy background to that,” stated Mach.

“For the flooring, we selected a wealthy yellow pure linoleum which, when lit, lights up the openings within the façade with a golden color.”

Occupying the central void and defining that quantity, a cluster of differently-sized white globe lights, one in all which has planetary rings, creates an summary model of a constellation and references the infinite fascination that many youngsters have for area.

Likewise, one other playspace includes a map of the world moulded instantly into the concrete wall, to encourage studying via each sight and contact.

Mach consulted along with his younger youngsters to seek out out what they thought could be greatest for themselves.

When designing for youngsters, you might want to have carried out your homework when it comes to security, effectivity, and every little thing else, however keep in mind that the one purpose to design is to encourage the youngsters to play.

“On the time we had been designing the kindergarten, my two youngsters had been aged three and 5 and we consulted with them,” added Mach.

“The higher the design, the extra you enable them to do and the tougher they will play.”

Mjölk Architekti not too long ago created a gabled mass-timber headquarters for a Czech timber firm that has photo voltaic panels fitted to its roof. In 2022, the studio additionally constructed an animal-like lookout on the Stráž mountain.

The images is by BoysPlayNice