KIDO es un jardín de infancia público al que nos gusta llamar "el cocodrilo amarillo". Se encuentra en una parcela triangular en Aleksandrów Łódzki, en el centro de Polonia.
El edificio es un híbrido tecnológico. La planta baja está hecha de hormigón y ladrillos y para construir la primera planta decidimos utilizar CLT. Cuando empezamos a trabajar en el proyecto, resultó que no había mucho tiempo. El jardín de infancia tenía que estar listo para septiembre, cuando comenzaba el curso escolar. Optamos por el CLT para acelerar el proceso de construcción. Ambas partes se construyeron simultáneamente. Los trabajadores construyeron la planta baja mientras se preparaban todos los elementos de madera en la fábrica. En cuanto el techo estuvo terminado, los grandes bloques de madera llegaron a la obra y comenzó el montaje. El segundo piso estuvo listo en sólo dos semanas y todo el proceso fue similar al montaje de los muebles de IKEA. Sólo faltaba instalar el aislamiento térmico y el material de la fachada.

Todo el proceso no fue fácil, porque en Polonia tenemos una de las normativas contra incendios más estrictas y fuimos los primeros en utilizar el CLT en un jardín de infancia. Afortunadamente, gracias a la determinación del inversor y a las consultas con expertos, cumplimos todos los requisitos.

La madera crea una atmósfera especial en el interior. Puede oler el bosque de abetos y sentir la textura del material natural. Las paredes y los techos inclinados amortiguan el ruido. Las habitaciones están bien iluminadas con una luz suave y difusa procedente de las claraboyas. Todo parece estar en paz. No queríamos perturbar esta sensación de armonía, por lo que no hay techos suspendidos, ni elementos de instalación macizos, ni revestimientos de yeso. Todas las partes del edificio son visibles. Además, optamos por la ventilación natural. En las rejillas de ventilación de las paredes hay calefactores que calientan el aire cuando la temperatura exterior cae por debajo de los 5°C. Los accesorios híbridos en las chimeneas favorecen el tiro de la chimenea. El sistema de calefacción por suelo radiante distribuye la temperatura uniformemente. Ya sabemos que la estructura hermética hecha de materiales naturales ha demostrado su eficacia en todas las condiciones meteorológicas. Era agradable y fresco en los días calurosos de verano y cálido y confortable en el gélido invierno.

Alrededor del edificio hay una amplia zona con algunos árboles viejos. En primavera se plantarán más árboles, así como arbustos, flores y verduras. Para el parque infantil, elegimos un material a base de madera en lugar de una superficie sintética, porque es permeable. Para evitar el calentamiento innecesario de la cubierta plana, hemos creado una gran zona verde.

La disposición del edificio es sencilla. Entramos en el amplio vestíbulo con un vestuario para los niños mayores. A la izquierda hay una gran sala polivalente que está abierta y que ha resultado ser un lugar ideal para divertirse justo antes de salir del jardín de infancia. Un poco escondido a un lado se encuentra un área administrativa y social. Desde el vestíbulo accedemos al pasillo que conduce a la escalera, a la pequeña cocina y a dos habitaciones para los más pequeños y su vestuario. Entre el vestíbulo y el pasillo hay una terraza triangular con un arenero y un abedul. En la primera planta hay cuatro amplias habitaciones con un aseo. Eso es todo. Menos de 1000m2 y 150 niños felices trepando por las paredes, escondiéndose en los recovecos y observando los pájaros a través de los grandes ventanales mientras descansan en los coloridos cojines.

Friendly spaces for everyone

Xystudio was founded by three university friends whose first collaboration was running a self-organised student café: Filip Domaszczyński, Dorota Sibińska and Marta Nowosielska. The trio focused on architecture for children, a topic rather unpopular in Poland around the year 2000. Applause and recognition followed fast, but the breakthrough, popularity and prizes came some years later, with a kindergarten project called “Yellow Elephant.”

“The popularity of the “Yellow Elephant” gave us the stage to talk about the importance of spaces for children. It was also our first project with roof windows. I remember going to the construction site, looking through a narrow, low window, and thinking how dark it was. After the holes for the roof windows had been cut out, the atmosphere changed completely! The impact of this project is ongoing: we still invite our future clients to see the spaces. Also, the use of roof windows has been included in the design guidelines for kindergartens, issued by the city of Warsaw.”
Dorota Sibińska, xystudio

“We founded our office in 2004, working together on projects focusing on human well-being. We believe that architecture is a profession of public trust, so we’re obliged to fight for the vulnerable ones, like children, persons with a handicap, or homeless: none of those groups can speak up for themselves in front of investors. We’re building in small towns, mainly, driven by our mission to enhance ugly, unfriendly places. Our office has realised more than 50 private creches and kindergartens, which gives us now the comfort of focusing on the financially challenged public institutions in the province.”
Dorota Sibińska, xystudio

User-friendly interiors

The kindergarten in Aleksandrów, a small town in central Poland – commissioned by a private client – had a large programme, requiring a two-storey building. A shed roof, which led to nicknaming the project “a crocodile”, reflects the industrial area; the intense yellow is an answer to the neglected, greyish buildings. Finishing the facades with scales-mimicking cladding is at the same time cost-efficient and a humorous solution. Part of the challenge for the architects was to trim the design and construction process for maximum cost and time efficiency without compromising their aesthetic and functional goals. As a result, the building’s ground floor was executed in a traditional manner, with concrete and bricks, while the upper floor was produced in CLT technology. This allowed for simultaneous construction of both storeys.

The rooms on the ground floor are exceptionally high, with a lot of windows, to ensure enough daylight. On the upper floor, under the shed roof, VELUX windows serve as a primary source of daylight, while the façade windows, on a child-friendly level, frame the views to the nearby grove.

Next to the entrance and waiting area for parents, a multifunctional, open room invites various groups during the entire week at different times: during the day, the space serves as a sensory room for the children and an extension of the waiting area – in the proximity of toddler rooms, in the evenings it is being rented out for the needs of the local community. Two separate playgrounds, for younger and older children, ensure a safe environment for both groups.

xystudio's vast experience with architecture for children led the architects to designing their own line of furniture for the small ones. The line, called "locomoco" consists of everything a preschool care institution needs: little chairs and tables, playhouses, wardrobes, storage units, dividing walls or blackboards.

Both the furniture and interiors feature colours as one of the main elements of designs. This decision is rooted in the studies of child psychology, which name identification of spaces through colours as easier than for example images of animals or symbols.

The care about users' comfort is more than the aesthetics of sunny, welcoming and animated spaces. The entire room programme is designed to promote various activities supporting well-being and development. Invisible factors, like room climate, are crucial. The entire building is ventilated in an eco-friendly way: with gravity ventilation and a natural airflow between the facades and the VELUX windows in the roof. Air inlets in the facades are heated for a better energy balance, and hidden from the outside behind steel meshes.

“Designing for children is about the feeling of safety, mainly. The surroundings have to be friendly, calm, and the rooms should be easy to find. There must be plenty of daylight for the well-being, but also to save on the electricity bills. Polish regulations for public kindergartens call for large square rooms: the only way to give them enough of much needed daylight is through roof windows. The light from above is soft, bright even on grey days, and suitable for both left- and right-handed kids.”
Dorota Sibińska, xystudio

“We’re getting better with each project thanks to lessons from our previous works. We repeat good solutions – like placing a generous amount of roof windows, and enhance what turns out to need rethinking. Thanks to the kindergarten or school teams' feedback, and our visits in the buildings we can observe the impact of rooms on everyday life habits and rituals.
Dorota Sibińska, xystudio