Contemporary emulation in mystic woodland sanctum for children
New building for 3-group Sofie Haug Children’s Day-Care Centre in Tübingen
Designed by Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner for the city of Tübingen, the Sofie Haug opened on the city’s Rosenauer Weg in 2022.
With a walkout basement set into a slope, the two-storey hybrid-timber building forms an architectural focal point which pays almost perfect homage to the ambitiously modelled terrain while ensuring the mature tree population is retained. The building’s rotation creates a forecourt as a transition area leading to the day-care centre’s protected grounds.
The rear-ventilated façade of charred spruce interacting with bright, glazed teal spruce to form a rhythmic pattern achieves an enchantingly mystic effect, arousing curiosity not only in children. Elemental and earthbound in its consolidation of the special charms its surroundings offer, this woodland sanctum invites visitors to explore its mystery via the glazed main entrance. Set at an angle within the façade, it is framed by glazed spruce with a highly intense teal colour that evokes mountain and forest lakes.
The southern garden side featuring the group rooms includes an access balcony structure, which contrasts with the predominantly enclosed north side. This creates a distinctive grid in front of the façade with floor-to-ceiling openings. Dark steel columns resemble a second skin owing to their filigree grouping. The zone between the building and the outside world provides a space for both privacy and social interaction. When the sun shade is extended, two hot-dip galvanised steel staircases lead to the open air in the varied play and activity area in the garden.
The interaction between traditional wood and cool steel produces a dynamism, rooted in the idea that the day-care centre is designed to be an inspiring workshop for children’s creativity.
The east side is charged with tension with its glazed walkout basement nestled in the hillside. The building rises above the slope, seemingly weightless. Reflections in the glass and the supporting structure showing through like a stylised root system allow architecture and nature to interconnect.
The building’s spatial layout is well-defined and uncluttered, adapted to the children’s need for structure. A wide central corridor provides access on both the ground and upper floors. The north side houses
the service rooms as well as the staircase and exposed concrete lift shaft in the centre while the recreation rooms are located to the south with direct access to the outside.
The centre’s management office and the kitchen are positioned next to the multifunctional foyer. The crèche rooms are located in the building’s eastern section.
The forest and nature theme continues inside. The complex communication system between materials and colours resembles a bright forest clearing. Walls of light-coloured spruce seem to grow out of the dark-brown, structured, earthy rubber floor. The ceilings covered with light blue wood wool panels bring the sky into the building’s rooms. The radiant sulphur-yellow paint on the oak doors symbolises the sun and wild forest flowers.
Interlacing of materials in the staircase, where the grey exposed concrete of the lift shaft meets light spruce wood and raw black steel, create a composition full of tension. Complex colours, shapes and structures encourage children’s enjoyment of visual and haptic perceptions. Large glazed surfaces and floor-to-ceiling windows with embedded seats bring nature into the rooms and invite children to linger.
The interior and exterior seem to melt into one another in the walkout basement. The exposed concrete walls implanted into the slope enfold the movement space. This dialogue and the polarity of materials result in an atmospheric spatial experience.
Modern aesthetic design language combined with natural materials and dominant colour contrasts create an imaginative venue that fulfils children’s desire for narrative architecture.
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