A natural atmosphere for children
Publication date: 29.04.2025
This article by Thomas Geuder, journalist of Der Raum, was translated and slightly reworked by Jan Hoffman
The ‘White City’ has been located in Oranienburg, north of the German city of Berlin, since the 1930s. It was built by architects Herbert Rimpl, who was responsible for the overall plan, and Walter Tralau, who studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In the immediate vicinity of the austere rows of buildings, Oranienburg is being densified with new residential areas. As part of this structural development measure, the ‘Weiße Stadt’ daycare centre for around 100 nursery and crèche children has also been built there. The building, designed by the Leipzig-based firm Knoche Architektur, is an almost completely demountable timber construction with sufficient building services.
The square structure defines the building on the access road to the new residential areas and is an important landmark in the urban fabric. Its exterior appearance is defined by a multi-layered facade that is staggered in depth: behind a slightly transparent curtain of delicate, grey-glazed larch wood slats, there is a surrounding pergola that creates a kind of transition zone between the interior and exterior. The vertical slats of the wooden curtain continue into the actual exterior walls behind. In addition, there are several floor-to-ceiling windows, creating a lively and multifaceted facade. The predominant use of wood for almost all facade elements intensifies the sense of unity and natural feel, especially for children.
The view of the square building is largely determined by a surrounding pergola. A delicate curtain of grey larch wood slats gives the facade a lively multi-layered appearance.
On a child's scale
This design and material experience continues inside. The perception is further enhanced by subtly coloured glazed multi-layer panels that mark the different group areas and thus facilitate orientation. The designers have succeeded in creating a bright, warm and calming spatial effect with generous natural lighting. The four groups of the nursery area and various administrative and ancillary rooms are located on the ground floor, while the older children have their place in the six group rooms of the daycare centre on the upper floor. The rooms are arranged around a central core according to a windmill principle, with two group rooms sharing an adjoining room and a cloakroom and sanitary area. Role-playing is possible in a doll's and theatre room, and a craft and construction room is available to encourage creativity. Specially protected areas and places of retreat offer individual cosiness. The educational facilities are complemented by an exercise room and a child-sized kitchen for cooking and baking together.
Almost all parts of the facade are made of wood, making the building a special, tactile experience for the children. The interiors are deliberately clear in form and decorated in subtle colours to create a calm atmosphere for the children.
Easy dismantling
The Knoche Architektur team designed most of the building's supporting structure in wood. The construction consists of wooden frame elements with ceilings made of wooden beams that are visible from below. As the planning was carried out entirely in three dimensions, the individual components could be completely prefabricated. This meant that the actual construction on site took only a few weeks. Only local woods were used, namely European larch and oak. The window frames and doors are made of softwood. The insulation was also kept consistent, with a material made of wood fibres being chosen. The floor slab is made of recycled concrete with foam glass gravel insulation underneath. Plastics, composite structures and solvent-based coatings were deliberately avoided as far as possible and, where possible, replaced by easily dismantled and recyclable products based on natural materials.
The actual facade features large windows with frames made of light-coloured softwood.
Efficient building technology
A district heating connection supplies the heat required in the house for underfloor heating, ventilation units and hot water. For air conditioning the rooms in summer, there is a sophisticated post-cooling concept in which cool outside air flows in through windows opened by the building automation system, passes through the entire building and is extracted again by a roof fan. The ventilation units used in the sanitary areas and the kitchen have a heat recovery rate of at least 65%. A photovoltaic system on the roof delivers an output of a good 11 kWp. The electricity is either consumed directly or fed into the public grid, which serves as virtual storage. The ‘Weiße Stadt’ daycare centre was nominated for the German Sustainability Award in 2024.
© All images: Simon Menges, Berlin