“Our intention was to provide protective and protected areas for the comfort and safety of children”, the architects say, “but also for the tranquility of the parents. This research to internalize spaces has led us to propose a spatial device that functions as an enclosure.” The general volume is a compact parallelepiped where three patios bring light and allows a natural ventilation of the round local devices.
Two patios are dedicated to outdoor spaces for children and the size depends on the year of nursery school: the smaller that are limited in their movement because of their young age have an outdoor space, while second and third year kids who perform the same activities share a larger outside. In this sense, instead of opening up to the landscape like a standard schoolyard, these places open to the living units. The surrounding space is set "behind the scenes", while the third patio leads light to the rooms on the ground floor. The façade with opaque print is covered with a skin of perforated concrete that lets in natural light coming from the outside.
“Imagining a pole of early childhood, we wanted to offer generous and sequenced areas where light penetrates in order to remove any impression of anxiety, giving parents time to come and separate from their child”. The color is a structural element of the architectural project: cool shades for communal spaces and a warm color palette for the local early childhood.
Heams & Michel Architects: Childcare Center
Destination: nursery and communal premises
Location: Tourrette Levens (Alpes – Maritimes), France
Architects: Nicolas Heams, Benjamin Michel
Engineers: GL Ingénierie, Arwytec
Artists: André Jaume, Nicole Brousse, Serge Megtert,
Clients: Ville de Tourrette Levens and SIVOM du Val de Banquière
Project area: 1 050 sqm
Year: 2013.
